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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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OcoAsiOiNAL Thoughts 



OF 



HORACE SEAYER. 



FROM 



Fifty Years of Free thinking. 



SELECTED FROM 

E^z JSoston Eniegtigator, 



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*' Come forth into the light of things, 
I J " Let Nature be your Teacher." 

Wordsworth. 




BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, 

Cnbesttgat0r ©IKce, 

PAINE MEMORIAL BUILDING, 
Appleton Street. 

1888. 



1 •7'!''^ 



3 



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Copyrighted, 

1888, 

By J. P. Mendum. 



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PREFACE. 



This volume is made up of editorials written 
for the Investigator by Mr Seaver. It has been 
prepared with his knowledge and consent, but 
without consulting his judgment as to its con- 
tents. 

The responsibility of selecting the articles for 
this book was assumed without thought of criti- 
cism. The desire which prompted the work, and 
directed its preparation, was to preserve, in a 
more convenient form, the writings of one who 
has honored the cause of free thought by his 
ability and devotion, and who is honored and re- 
spected, by thousands of his fellow beings, as the 
Nestor of Liberalism. 

No apology need be offered for giving this book 
to the world. It carries its own recommendation. 
Every friend of honest thought will welcome it as 
a valuable addition to the library of honest litera- 
ture, which is yet none too large. Every father 
who is desirous of having a wise instructor for the 
growing minds of his children will be glad to 
take this volume into his home. 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

A new generation, which is to carry forward the 
work of emancipation from the bondage of super- 
stition, is coming upon the stage of action. The 
counsel of the generation which is now passing 
away should be heeded. No man of his time has 
spoken wiser words than Horace Seaver. 

If the lessons contained in this volume could 
be transmuted into human character and human 
life, the individual would be nobler, society would 
be purer, and the nation would be better. 

Let us remember that it is not only wisdom to 
speak wise words, but also to heed them. 

L. K. Washburn. 

Revere, Mass, Aug. 24, 1888. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE 

Opposition and Prejudice 9 

Education a Cure for Bigotry 11 

Circumstances 13 

Government 14 

Woman's Rights 17 

Society 20 

The Schoolmaster 21 

Priests 22 

Free Discussion 23 

The Triumph of Learning . .24 

Hints to Heretics .25 

The Theatre 26 

Who is the Atheist ? 28 

Temperance 30 

Individual Effort 32 

Heaven and Hell 33 

Religious Despotisms 34 

Conscience 35 

To Advocate Unwelcome Truths no Easy Task . 36 

Agitation 37 

Opinions 38 

Exaggeration 39, 

The Question 40 

The Present Age 41 

Thomas Paine .43 

Self-Respect 44 

Sectarianism 45 

The Working-Class 47 

Reformers 49 

Liberty 51 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

Motives 52 

Virtue and Religion 53 

Bad Intentions 54 

**The World Moves" 55 

Religion and Liberalism 56 

Sunday Schools 59 

Reverence for Old Doctrines 61 

Courage , . 63 

Free Speech 64 

The Closing Year 65 

The Unknown 67 

What will you Substitute for Religion ? . . . 68 

Individuality 70 

Freedom of the Press 74 

Difference of Opinion 76 

Reflections 77 

Mothers 79 

Philosophy and Religion 81 

Life a Journey 82 

The Great Purpose of Social Life 83 

Nature and Reason 85 

Purposes of Life 86 

Punishment . 87 

Right Doctrine 89 

Learning a Trade 89 

Home Conversation 91 

Improvement of Mankind 93 

This World 96 

A Future Life 97 

The Influence of Woman 98 

Old Age 101 

Light and Darkness 102 

Pride . 106 

Living and Dying 108 

Intellectual Pleasures 109 

Evils 113 

Duty and Happiness 114 

Universal Benevolence 115 

Truth 117 



CONTENTS. 7 

Pleasures 121 

Liberty — Reason — Justice — Society 124 

Imagination 127 

Literature -— Education — Justice 131 

Words — Ideas 133 

Make the Best of Everything 137 

Intellectual Improvement . . . ... . . . 139 

Actions — Duties — Virtues 140 

Mothers and Children 144 

Amusements on Sunday. 148 

The Training of Children . . . 151 

Physical Education , , . 152 

Reform 154 

Thoughts for the Young 155 

The Right to Express Opinions 158 

Preaching 161 

The Supply of Natural Wants 164 

The Right to Good Government 168 

Female Influence 171 

Importance of Common Schools 173 

The Clergy and Reform 175 

Virtue and Vice 177 

Providence 180 

Editing 182 

A Cheerful Philosophy 183 

A Noble Life 185 

Actions 186 

Rights 187 

Religion and Common Sense 188 

Science and Religion 190 

Thoughts on Life and Death 194 

Follow the Light of Evidence 198 

What is Truth ? 202 

Man 205 

What Humanity Needs 208 

Sectarian Schools 210 

Individuality 212 

Sunday 213 

Infidelity 215 



8 CONTENTS. 

The Intellectual Faculties . 210 

Freedom of Opinion 217 

Protestants — Catholics 219 

Moral Influence 220 

Religion in the Public Schools 221 

Formation of Opinions 222 

A Church 223 

Blind Faith . 224 

Ignorance and Devotion 225 

Crime 227 

Morality 228 

This World 229 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 



OPPOSITION AND PREJUDICE. 

It would be difficult to find, in the general pre- 
judice against the advocates of our principles, any 
justifiable motive for that prejudice. We are not 
to be understood to assert that there are none who 
honestly and conscientiously oppose us. We have 
no doubt there are many. But this is no proof 
that their opposition is founded on correct 
grounds, and is therefore right and expedient. 
Man may be as conscientious in error, as in truth, 
but it is error, nevertheless ; and the opposition it 
creates, however sincere, is none the less unjust. 

While, then, we admit that we have some con- 
scientious opposers, we are no less conscientious 
in affirming that their opposition and prejudice 
are based on error; and consequently their con- 
duct cannot be justified. That this is the truth, 
is apparent from our doctrine itself; for it con- 
tains nothing that any man in his right senses can 
honestly reject. We profess to believe only in 
things known and seen, — things that have been 
demonstrated by actual observation or experience, 

9 



10 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and of course known to be what they are repre- 
sented. This we call knowledge ; and the only- 
knowledge in the world worthy of the name. 
Who can advance a valid or reasonable objection 
to this belief? We disbelieve, on the other hand, 
only what is unseen and unknown, and cannot be 
seen or known. But here is no disbelief of 
knowledge involved. And who, we ask again, can 
rationally object to this belief ? 

These two principles comprise, in substance, 
the doctrine for which we contend. And, we 
repeat, it is difficult on any reasonable and honest 
ground to account for the bitter opposition it has 
drawn down upon those who support it. 

They who conscientiously oppose our doctrine, 
have doubtless never examined the foundation on 
which it rests ; but, taking counsel from others, 
have formed a judgment from the representations 
of persons interested in deceiving them. Honest 
themselves, they have given implicit credence to 
what they deemed the honesty of others ; without 
anj^ examination, on their own part, of the truth 
of the charges preferred against us. But the 
great majority of our opposers are sheer calumni- 
ators, who, in order to fix upon us the detesta- 
tion of the public, and to secure the safety of their 
" craft, " brand us with opprobrious epithets which 
excite the prejudice and animosity of the people, 
and suppress the spirit of inquiry, the exercise of 
which would enable them to judge for themselves. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 11 

Let us, however, continue to persevere in the 
cause we have embraced, and make our examples 
prove the truth of our principles. So shall Free 
Inquiry eventually prevail over all opposition, 



EDUCATION A CUEE FOR BIGOTRY. 

Ignorance is not only the mother of supersti- 
tion, she is also the parent of fear. He who has 
no definite knowledge of what he professes to be- 
lieve, is not only afraid openly to avow his senti- 
ments, and firmly to maintain them, but he is also 
afraid to have them very closely examined. The 
consequence is, that if he possesses any power 
over those that are about him, he finds it far easier 
to propagate and defend his opinions by the awe 
of his authority, than by the clearness of his ex- 
planations and the force of his arguments. 
Hence, an ignorant people are afraid of frank in- 
quiry and close investigation, not so much, per- 
haps, because they fear the skepticism of others, 
as because they dread the exposure of their own 
ignorance. 

It is here, then, that bigotry begins to fetter 
the powers of the human mind, and to chain it in 
a thraldom far more distressing than the imprison- 
ment of the body. Among an ignorant people, 
the child is not permitted, with freedom, to express 
its sentiments. To dare to doubt what has been 
said to be true by its friends and its relations, is 



12 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

to subject itself, if not to their censure, at least to 
their gloomy frowns and their dark suspicions. 
The result is, not the inculcation of correct senti- 
ments, but the growth of an ignorant bigotry; 
and then, when the mind, unshackled from these 
early religious restraints, begins to examine for 
itself, there are ten thousand obstacles in the path 
of truth ; there is still this long-cherished fear of 
offending those whom they have been taught to 
reverence and to love ; there is connected with 
this, perhaps, a deep sense of shame, because they 
know so little of things with which they ought to 
have been familiar; there is a feeling of dis- 
couragement at the contemplation of those who 
are apparently firm in their convictions, and who 
are enjoying all the pleasures of unwavering faith; 
and then there is the cutting, withering conviction 
that they are unsettled in their opinions, and yet 
cannot express a doubt, without sacrificing char- 
acter. It takes a firm and decided mind, particu- 
larly if one possesses warm and ardent affections, 
to bear up with perseverance, under the pressure 
of circumstances like these. And we have often 
thought that many an individual thus educated, 
or rather thus permitted to grow up in ignorance, 
has, in the madness of disappointed enthusiasm, 
rejected the truth, through fear of subjection to 
the bigotry of error. 

Education prevents such catastrophes. It scat- 
ters light upon what is dark, instead of envelop- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 13 

ing it in tenfold darkness. It encourages inquiry 
because it loves the truth. The parent who is in- 
structed wishes the child to ask, that it may re- 
ceive its instruction. Its reasonable doubts are 
heard with attention, and answered with candor ; 
and the village where such a state of society ex- 
ists, is a village from which bigotry flies, and in 
which truth makes her dwelling. 

CIECUMSTANCES. 

In respect to character, man has a capacity to 
be anything, and by turns everything, as circum- 
stances shall determine. He, like the floating 
bubble on the stream, shows us, at times, many 
colors and mixtures of colors ; but these various 
shades of character, however light or dark, are 
little more than reflex radiations from surround- 
ing objects and occurrences. The simple nature 
of man is colorless — it is fitted to receive every 
variety of impression ; and when the combined 
nature and impression call forth an action, good or 
bad, such action discloses not so much the hue of 
the nature itself, as the hue which it has taken 
from the bright or gloomy influences to which 
it has been exposed. 

If, therefore, we would have the family of man 
to be, as it were, a bright and glorious assemblage 
of the pictures of humanity, we must place all 
men in favorable positions, and surround them 



14 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

with circumstances and influences in which there 
is nothing black or unseemly. It matters not so 
much what may be the mere knowledge given to 
men, or the religious or the moral precepts taught 
to them, if the circumstances by Vv^hich they are 
surrounded be disregarded; — bad circumstances 
and influences can neither produce nor yet main- 
tain good men. Circumstances furnish the seed 
of good or ill, and man is but the soil in which 
they grow. The characters of men may be made 
entirely good or entirely bad, or, as now, a varie- 
gated mixture of good and bad; but if the insti- 
tutional circumstances and influences which sur- 
round man do not accord with the end desired — 
do not contain within them more of good than of 
evil — that which was intended to be a beautiful 
garden will become either choked up with noxious 
weeds, or turned into a blighted and barren waste. 

GOVEENMENT. 

All the forms of government at present exist- 
ing, are in a greater or less degree tyrannical and 
irresponsible. The wrongs which emanate from 
them operate upon the people, generally, in an 
indirect manner, through the medium of laws; 
and such laws are always necessarily imbued with 
the spirit of inequality which pervades the govern- 
ment from which they spring. 

Might and right have long been, with rulers, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 15 

synonymous terms; and right and wisdom and 
virtue are supposed to be inherent in certain per- 
sons and classes of the community, independent 
of other persons and classes. But all these ideas 
of superior and inferior — of master and man — 
may be traced to the neglect of First Principles, 
and to the consequent rise of inequality of possess- 
ions; and such ideas will never be eradicated, nor 
the institutions founded upon them be subverted, 
so long as this inequality is maintained. 

Men have hitherto blindly hoped to remedy the 
present unnatural state of things, and to institute 
equality of rights and laws, by removing one rich 
tyrant and setting up another — by destroying 
existing inequality and leaving untouched the cause 
of the inequality; but it will shortly be seen 
that it is not in the nature of any mere govern- 
mental change to afford permanent relief — that 
misgovernment is not a cause, but a conse- 
quence, — that it is not the creator, but the 
created, that it is the offspring of inequality of poss- 
essions ; and that inequality of possessions is in- 
separably connected with our present social sys- 
tem. From this it will follow that the present 
state of things cannot be remedied unless we 
change at once our whole social system ; for, alter 
our form of government as we will, no such 
change can affect the system — no such change 
can prevent inequality of possessions, and the di- 
vision of society into employers and employed — 



16 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and therefore, as a necessary consequence, no such 
change can remove the evils which this system and 
this division of society engender. 

We do not act, and never yet have acted upon 
those First Principles which Nature has instituted 
for the guidance and the welfare of man ; nor do we 
keep the broad principle of equality in view, either 
in our rights or our duties, our labors or our re- 
wards. With us almost everything is unequal 
and unnatural and unjust. And why are 
things thus? How is it that some men receive 
only half allowance for doing double work, 
while others receive double or quadruple allow- 
ance merely for looking on? There is no prin- 
ciple in numbers which will enable one un- 
aided man, with powers only equal to those of 
any other man, to perform the united labor of one 
hundred, — and there is no principle of reason or 
of justice which will allow one man to appropriate 
the fruits of the labor of one hundred. And yet 
this unjust appropriation has been practised and 
tolerated, in defiance of every principle of num- 
bers and of justice, from the creation of man to 
the present day. Such is the operation of the 
present social system ; on fraud and robbery legal- 
ized, stand all its power and wealth and glory; 
and until this system be overthrown, and immu- 
table principles of right established, let no man 
speak of peace, or look for justice, or hope for 
happiness. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 17 



WOMAN S EIGHTS. 



If there are any rights withheld from women 
by our present social or civil rules, or if there 
are any privileges which could be accorded to 
them without affecting public morality and well- 
being let them be explained, restored, and 
granted. 

It is so common to speak of woman as a perfect 
nonentity, — a mere accident in the race, — a sort 
of hot-bed exotic, cultivated more for show than 
for use, that we hardly know how to speak other- 
wise of her. But we can tell our conservative 
friends that in this matter they have not a par- 
ticle of ground to stand upon, — not a peg upon 
which to hang an argument against this one sim- 
ple fact: that w^oman is of the race an inte- 
gral portion, subject to all social, civil, and crimi- 
nal laws, yet without a direct voice in the matter. 
The direct civil and political isolation and exclu- 
sion of the chattel slaves of the South was not 
more complete than is that of woman in the most 
advanced state of what is recognized as the high- 
est civilization. Every step taken by society 
towards her political emancipation is spoken of 
as a favor to the sex, and everj^ such favor is re- 
garded by some conservatives, as a wanton and 
unnecessary innovation upon wholesome laws. 
Why cannot these fearful and we fear somewhat 
fusty old bachelors, reflect that many such innova- 



18 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

tions were necessary before woman emerged from 
the degradation of savage life to her present state ; 
and no more positive and absolute sign of progress 
is indicated in humanity, than the occasional abo- 
lition of those customs which consigned women to 
more than chattel slavery. We might refer to an 
old law of England, under which a man could put 
a rope round the neck of his wife, lead her to the 
marketplace, and there sell her to the highest 
bidder, precisely like a horse or a sheep. This 
rude and barbarous custom was but a svmbol of 
the then prevailing idea of woman's sphere. She 
was regarded as a mere appendage to the race, — 
an instrument for man's lust and tyranny, — a 
sort of natural accident, resorted to by Nature 
on the spur of the moment, as a sort of neces- 
sary expedient to continue those lordly beings 
called men. No drudgery was too degrading 
for her to perform, no punishment too degrad- 
ing for her crimes, — and that which was re- 
garded in a gentleman as a mere peccadillo, 
unworthy of censure (licentiousness), was (and 
is) regarded in women as the last seal of utter 
social damnation. 

To attempt to breathe a word in favor of in- 
justice like this, so open, palpable, gross, is to 
waste breath, outrage common sense, and to jus- 
tify wrong the most glaring. It matters nothing 
at all that the criminal law punishes their crimes 
with equal severity, nor can a conservative find a 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 19 

particle of countenance from this. Public opinion 
pronounces woman a social slave, and on the 
strength of this decree, every possible distinction 
is made between the same crime of the unmarried 
woman and man, — and the distinction is wholly 
against her. Here is the injustice of the present 
infernal social custom. 

We are not able to conceive of any radical 
change in the existing marriage custom (always 
excepting the present law of divorce), which 
would be an improvement. But we do believe 
that placing woman in her proper political posi- 
tion would lead to a radical change in public 
opinion respecting her value. Either a woman is 
no whit above a horse, in the political and civil 
scale, or she is part and parcel of society, entitled 
to her voice and vote and property. 

Marriage differs from business copartnerships, 
but it is a copartnership, nevertheless, and if any 
distinction be made in favor of either party, it 
should be for the weaker party ; now, it is against 
her. Her labor, also, comes in for its share of 
degradation, and that labor which, performed by 
man, receives one hundred and fifty cents, when 
performed by woman receives about fifty or sixty 
cents. 

Tliese are abuses^ the errors of past ignorance, 
and it is a sign of stultification not to reform them 
out of sight altogether. 



20 OCCASIOi^TAL THOUGHTS. 



SOCIETY. 



Were man a stationary being, like the beasts 
and birds by which he is surrounded — had he a 
fixed and unchangeable instinct, instead of a pro- 
gressive and improvable reason — any change in 
his social institutions would be unnecessary. 
Society would have been the same at the begin- 
ning, as it is at present; and it would continue 
one uniform state as long as man should exist. 
But man is not thus stationary ; he is a reasoning, 
and therefore a progressive being. The knowledge 
and experience of one generation can be trans- 
mitted to the next ; and, as a man at forty years 
of age must possess more knowledge than he did 
at twenty, so also must the world at large possess 
a greater accumulation of knowledge, at the end 
of four thousand years from the creation of man, 
than was possessed at the end of four hundred. 
Knowledge is simply an accumulation of facts ; 
and wisdom is the art of applying such knowledge 
to its true purpose — the promotion of human hap- 
piness. Although men may have much knowl- 
edge, and no wisdom, there can only be little 
wisdom where there is but little knowledge. The 
present generation have the accumulated knowl- 
edge and experience of four thousand years to work 
upon: and therefore they have it in their power 
to act wiser, in respect to the establishment of 
social and political institutions, than any genera- 
tion that has preceded them. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 21 

Such being the nature of man, and such his 
powers, the consideration of a social change need! 
excite no more surprise or apprehension than a sim- 
ple political movement. If a social change be a 
gigantic one, so, likewise, are the evils mighty 
which require to be removed. Throughout the 
whole universe, from the most stupendous planet 
to the individual atom, changes are perpetual, 
there is nothing at rest, nothing stationary ; to 
affirm, therefore, that governmental institutions 
reqiiire no reformation, that social systems need 
no alteration, is just as absurd as to say that the 
man shall wear the swaddling clothes which be- 
fitted his infancy, and be pleased in maturity, 
with the rattle which charmed his childhood. 



THE SCHOOLMASTEK. 

The position of the schoolmaster should be 
better secured. It is essential that he should 
be independent and respectable. His authority 
should be jealously guarded. His emoluments 
should be dealt with a liberal hand, and with an 
assured regularity, such as will place him beyond 
anxiety on that score, and thus leave his mind 
calm and free for an occupation in which calm- 
ness and freedom of mind are eminently requisite. 
A common blunder in this country is, to un- 
derrate the functions and importance of the 
schoolmaster. We buy our teachers in what is 



22 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

pecuniarily, though not in reality, the cheapest 
market. And jet we prate about our immortal 
souls ! All the while neglecting or only half 
appreciating those whose influence must develop 
the capacity of knowledge into actual intelligence, 
and render the soul or mind more dignified and 
valuable than the instinct of the brute. Educa- 
tion has no more important problem to be solved 
than that of raising the educator to a proper 
position ; that, we mean, which the well-being of 
the young and of society requires he should oc- 
cupy. 

PBIESTS. 

The idea of going to heaven through the aid of 
priests places mankind at once in a stage of de- 
pendence and inferiority. When once accustomed 
to this state, they are thus necessarily prepared 
for all those degrading concessions and compli- 
ances, which constitute the condition of master 
and slave. Firmness and nobleness of mind are 
gone ; men become dastards in character, and 
recreant in nature. The designing and hypocrit- 
ical, who believe nothing of the imposition, join 
in the practice of it, to carry their own worldly 
schemes; some of pride, some of genius, others 
of gain, but like all schemes of tyranny, the bur- 
then of paying and fighting for them falls invari- 
ably on the common mass. 

It is impossible that the honest portion of the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 23 

community could for a moment maintain this 
system, if once brought to see its falsity. The 
whole system has been believed and adopted 
without a particle of proof; and that under the 
most unaccountable circumstances of absurdity 
and contradiction. Why do not honest men first 
demand proof of it, before they become its slaves. 
It is true that all systems of faith and religion 
are got up by man, to impose on his fellow ; or it 
is true that one or more of them are instituted by 
deity. If any one be instituted by deity, which 
one is it ? when was it instituted ? where was it 
instituted ? why was it instituted ? No mark is 
put upon any known system by which it can be 
distinguished as coming from deity ; on the con- 
trary, all bear the mark of the folly and imperfec- 
tion of man. If deity has designated any one 
system, no man has yet discovered this divine 
designation ; all pretend to have it, however much 
opposed to each other, which is sufficient evidence 
that none has it. 

FEEE DISCUSSION. 

The man not imbued with superstitions, and 
who entertains a sincere desire to promote the 
happiness of the human race, will readily admit, 
that open and impartial discussion is the founda- 
tion of human liberty. Free, unrestrained inquiry 
on all subjects, is, in fact, the source of knowl- 
edge and wisdom ; for how can we detect error, 



24 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

or distinguish truth, if there is one topic remain- 
ing which we are not to investigate ? We may ex- 
patiate for centuries on the advantages attending 
correct views and correct principles ; but if those 
systems which brutalize the mind, which proscribe 
the use of reason, and which liold mankind under 
the dominion of a vile superstition, are not to be 
probed to the bottom, and exhibited in all their 
deformity, the most powerful eloquence, the most 
transcendent reasoning in the world (though of 
weight in their proper place) will be utterly use- 
less. To convince man that happiness is attaina- 
ble, it is not enough that he know this. The 
causes which deprive him of it, the sources of his 
misery, must be clearly and distinctly pointed out ; 
otherwise, he will remain all his lifetime a child of 
sorrow and misfortune. Ignorant of the nature 
of the evils which beset him, he will continue the 
dupe of the crafty and designing, whose sole 
object it is to darken the understanding, that they 
may perpetuate their inordinate power and influ- 
ence. 

THE TKIUMPH OF LEARNING. 

Mind constitutes the majesty of man ; virtue, his 
true nobility. The tide of improvement which is 
now flowing through the Ir.nd, like another Niag- 
ara, is destined to roll on downward to the latest 
posterity ; and it will bear them on its bosom, our 
virtues, our vices, our glory, or our shame, or 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 25 

whatever else we may transmit as an inheritance. 
It, then, in a great measure, depends upon the 
present, whether the moth of immorality, of igno- 
rance, and the vampire of luxury shall prove the 
overthrow of the republic, or knowledge and 
virtue, like pillars, shall support her against the 
whirlwind of war, ambition, corruption, and the 
remorseless tooth of time. Give your children 
fortune without education, and at least half the 
number will go down to the tomb of oblivion — 
perhaps to ruin. Give them education, and they 
will accumulate fortunes ; they will be a fortune 
to themselves and their country. It is an inheri- 
tance worth more than gold, for it buys true honor. 
It can never be lost or spent, and through life it 
proves a friend ; in death, a consolation. Give 
your children education, and no tyrant will tram- 
ple over your liberties. Give your children edu- 
cation, and the silver-shod horse of the despot will 
never trample in ruins the fabric of your freedom. 



HINTS TO HERETICS. 

Be courageous. Dare to be honest, just, mag- 
nanimous, true to your country, to yourselves, to 
the world. Dare to do to others as you would 
have them do to you. Most men are cowards. 
They are afraid to speak and to act when duty 
calls, and as duty requires. Few men will suffer 
themselves to be called cowards ; and yet they 



26 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

betray their cowardice by the very course they 
take to resent the insult. A man may intrepidly 
face the cannon's mouth, and be an arrant coward 
after all. 

There is a higher, a nobler courage, than was 
ever displayed in the heat of battle, or on the 
field of carnage. There is a moral courage, which 
enables a man to triumph over foes more formida- 
ble than were ever marshalled by any Caesar. A 
courage which impels him to do his duty, to hold 
fast his integrity, to maintain a conscience void of 
offence, at every hazard and sacrifice, in defiance 
of the world. Such is the courage that sustains 
every good man, amidst the temptations, allure- 
ments, honors, conflicts, opposition, ridicule, malice, 
cruelty, or persecution, which beset and threaten 
him at every stage of his progress through life. 

THE THEATRE. 

One of the most odious features of the Chris- 
tian superstition is persecution ; and one of the 
most reprehensible of its acts of continued ven- 
geance is its persecution of the Theatre. From 
time immemorial it has been at deadly war with 
it. At one time in the reign of the ''Round- 
heads," in the days of Oliver Cromwell, than 
whom a more profound and painted hypocrite 
never lived, the stage was entirely suppressed ; 
and if any one would enjoy a theatrical piece, he 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 27 

had to do it at his private house, at his own 
expense or that of his friends. Actors were as 
good as proscribed and banished England. The 
labors of eminent men, and even the works of the 
immortal Shakespeare, were suffered to lie among 
the rubbish of musty libraries, while the efforts 
of drivelling sermonizers and poetasters were read, 
rehearsed, and listened to, with avidity. We are 
not about to write an eulogy upon the stage, but 
we reprobate that poor, miserable, contracted 
spirit, which tries to drive people into an absurd 
superstition by excluding them from every species 
of amusement and innocent pastime, and by con- 
fining them eternally to the noise, confusion, rant 
and nonsense of a conventicle. But this is the 
only way that religionists can succeed. 

This much, however, we will say in behalf of 
the stage, and we challenge any one of intelli- 
gence and truth to deny its verity. The stage has 
ever preceded and accompanied refinement in 
manners, purity of taste, and a revival of litera- 
ture and of the arts and sciences. Its most splen- 
did triumphs have been in the presence of the 
most enlightened and freest governments. Ty- 
rants of all kinds have been the first to fear and 
denounce the stage, unless indeed they could pros- 
titute it to their interests. Some of the most dis- 
tinguished men, men of the greatest rarity and 
most masterly talents, and men of sterling princi- 



28 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

pies too, have written for it and considered their 
success, as it truly was, the pledge of their immor- 
tal fame. Mankind require amusement, relaxation 
and easy excitement of mind and feeling, and in 
some way or other they will have them ; and the 
theatre in all large cities and towns present them 
on a large and rational scale, and cheaper than they 
can be obtained in any other way. When it is 
encouraged by the wise and good, it is raised up 
to a pure atmosphere, and, as a mirror, becomes 
bright, while left to the dregs of society, it becomes 
obscene by the polluted breath breathed upon it, 
proving, incontestibly, that like all other great 
vehicles of instruction, it is merely passive, ever 
a source of pleasure and of moral and intellectiial 
profit as it is employed. 

WHO IS AN ATHEIST? 

Men tremble at the very name of an atheist. 
But who is an atheist? The man who brings man- 
kind back to reason and experience, by destroying 
prejudices inimical to their happiness; who has 
no need of resorting to supernatural powers in 
explaining the phenomena of nature. 

It is madness, say the theologians, to suppose 
incomprehensible motives in nature. Is it mad- 
ness to prefer the known to the unknown ? to 
consult experience and the evidence of our senses ? 
to address ourselves to reason, and prefer her 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 29 

oracles to the decision of sophists who even con- 
fess themselves ignorant of the God they an- 
nounce ? 

When we see priests so angry with atheistical 
opinions, should we not suspect the justice of their 
cause ? Spiritual tyrants I 'tis ye who have de- 
famed the divinity by besmearing him with the 
blood of the wretched ! Tou are the truly im- 
pious ! Impiety consists in insulting the God in 
whom it believes. He who does not believe in a 
God cannot injure him, and cannot of course be 
impious. 

On the other hand, if piety consists in serving 
our country, in being useful to our fellow-crea- 
tures, and in observing the laws of nature, an 
atheist is pious, honest, and virtuous when his con- 
duct is regulated by the laws which reason and 
virtue prescribe to him. 

It is true, the number of atheists is incon- 
siderable, because enthusiasm has dazzled the 
human mind, and the progress of error has been 
so great that few men have courage to search for 
truth. If by atheists are meant those who, guided 
by experience and the evidences of their senses, 
see nothing in nature but what really exists ; if 
by atheists are meant natural philosophers, who 
think everything may be accounted for by the laws 
of motion, without having recourse to a chimeri- 
cal power; if by atheists are meant those who 
know not what a spirit is, and who reject a phan- 



30 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

torn, whose opposite qualities only disturb man- 
kind, — doubtless there are many atheists; and 
their number would be greater, were the knowl- 
edge of physics and sound reason more generally 
disseminated. 

An atheist does not believe in the existence of 
a God. No man can be certain of the existence 
of an inconceivable being, in whom inconsistent 
qualities are said to be united. In this sense 
many theologians would be atheists, as well as 
those credulous beings who prostrate themselves 
before a being of w^hom they have no other idea 
than that given theui by men, avowedly compre- 
hending nothing of him themselves. 

TEMPERANCE. 

As the habit of drinking ardent spirits is injuri- 
ous to the human constitution, and as the man 
who indulges in it runs great risk of becoming 
sooner or later a confirmed inebriate, since mod- 
erate drinking is the downhill road to intemper- 
ance, we would sincerely caution every one who 
has not yet contracted the habit, to be on his 
guard against it, and would earnestly advise every 
one who is indulging in drink as a beverage, to 
abstain from it altogether. We have not a word 
to say in disparagement of the men who drink. 
They are often found among the best men in the 
community; and, knowing this fact, and feeling 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 31 

sorry to see them injuring themselves by a hurtful 
habit, we throw out our caution and advice as a 
matter of duty. 

We are well aware, however, that mere advice 
and caution are not enough to prevent intemper- 
ance to any great extent. Something more is 
needed, and when that is found out, we shall 
make a great deal more progress in suppressing 
the evil than we now do. Notwithstanding all 
that has been written and said upon the subject 
of intemperance, we have an idea that the philoso- 
phy of the habit is but very little understood 
even yet — we mean by this, the causes that make 
intemperance, and the means to remove it. In- 
temperance, as a general thing, being an artificial 
or an acquired habit, it would seem as if the right 
understanding of the laws of our nature w^ould 
suggest a natural, harmless and effectual preven- 
tative. 

But how will you prevent intemperance? 
Probably the answer that we should give to this 
question would satisfy but a small part of the 
community ; in fact, most of the people might 
look upon our remedy as worse than the disease, 
so much are people governed by prejudice, and 
opposed to innovation. Yet we shall venture to 
throw out a few hints, in the hope that they may 
reach some liberal and common-sense minds quali- 
fied to judge, and not afraid to avow publicly their 
convictions 



32 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

Our plan would be to regenerate the people — 
teach them habits of temperance — provide them 
roomy dwelling-houses, and plenty of water ; open 
up for them on Sunday, their most drunken day, 
every available means of rational enjoyment ; 
give them every facility for innocent amusement 
and recreation ; let them have free access to muse- 
ums, exhibitions of the fine arts, reading-rooms, 
and every other conceivable means of innocently 
and rationally passing their time. Here is the 
answer to the question, "How will you prevent 
intemperance?" — Provide a substitute for the bar- 
room. 

INDIVIDUAL EFFORT. 

How little there is existing in society of what 
can be truly called individual effort ! How rare 
the instance of a man depending solely on the in- 
fluence of his own merit or moral worth, to insure 
success or preferment! But perhaps this de- 
ficiency of character nowhere appears so strongly 
marked as in the conduct which governs many in 
tiieir social intercourse. We there see the young 
man, — who ought of all others to rely on his 
own desert alone for promotion and reward, — 
manifesting a desire to advance by the meritorious 
deeds of others. 

The patriotic services or great possessions of a 
father, for example, are ofttiipes considered by 
the son as entitling Mm to acceptance and re- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 33 

nown, as if he had a right to wear the laurels that 
value or industry alone has gained for another. 
It is his dutj^ and should be his pride, to preserve 
and defend those laurels from blight and asper- 
sion ; but it is sacrilegious in the extreme, to rob 
the dead of honors they bore while living. Rather 
let the son be the artificer of his own fortune. 
Let him carve out his own way, dependent only 
on his own exertions, and trusting only to them 
for what the future may make him. Then, when 
success has perfected what real merit began, he 
can rest his claims for admiration and applause, 
on a basis sure and permanent, and one on which 
diligence and worth will have raised a superstruc- 
ture honorable to his memory. 

*' What merit to be dropped on fortune's hill ? 
The honor is to mount it.'''' 



HEAVEN AND HELL. 

What evidence is there of the existence of these 
places, in the view in which professing Christians 
generally, take of them ? We never could find 
any : and one sect, at least, the Universalists, ap- 
pear to have been quite as unsuccessful as regards 
the latter place, as ourselves. They have long 
since exploded the idea of any such place as hell. 
But would they not find it just as difficult to 
prove any such place as heaven ? People have no 
more come back to tell us anything about heaven, 



34 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

than they have to tell us about hell. We may 
say that people have dreamed about it; so they 
have dreamed about the other place just as much. 
The only idea, therefore, that we can form 
either of heaven or hell, exists in the mind, and 
there only — it is a state, and not a place — that 
such is the fact, is obvious from daily experience 
and common observation ; and let theologians 
mystify and speculate as they will, the true doc- 
trine is simply this : Hapioiness is Heaven ; and the 
misery which arises from guilt is HelL 

KELIGIOUS DESPOTISMS. 

It appears that the constitutions of antiquity 
were as inimical to religious freedom as modern 
governments, and that conformity of opinion has 
at no time been obtained except by the terror of 
penal statutes. 

An absolute freedom in discussing religion, has 
never yet existed in any age or country. Tlie re- 
ligion of Athens was interwoven with its consti- 
tution, and neither genius, learning, courage, 
nor the softer virtues, uncombiued with the super- 
stition of the age, could screen their possessors 
from the persecutions of an implacable priesthood. 
Among the Romans, too, it was toleration, not 
freedom. 

It was in vain, however that those mighty 
authorities endeavored to fetter the transmission 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 35 

of thought, and to fix the opinions of the human 
race. Man, though individually confined to a 
narrow spot, and limited in his existence to a few 
courses of the sun, has, nevertheless an imagina- 
tion which ranges into the infinities of space, and 
the ever-rolling current of ages. The petty legis- 
lators of the hour issue their mandates that a 
boundary shall be drawn around the energy of 
mind, — '' Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther." 
Such is the fiat, but it is as useless as that which 
would restrain the waves of the ocean. Time, 
that successfully consigns to oblivion the ever- 
changing governments and religions of men, and 
which now sits upon the ruins of despotic Greece 
and Rome, — their temples despoiled of their dei- 
ties and crumbled into dust, — will as surely de- 
stroy the sacred despotisms that have tyrannized 
over mankind, now too long, under the symbols 
of the crescent and the cross. 



CONSCIENCE. 

Conscience is no more than the effect of reason- 



i n'g oF^ passi ug^Weas , either upon past scenes or^ 
upon present appearances. It is thus, when the 
ideas are caused by the recollection of past actions, 
that our sense of right and wrong, our reason or 
conscience, either acquits or condemns it. It is a 
reasoning on the ideas then present; and it is the 
same thing, the same process, whether it be an 



36 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

action of our own, or that of another, on the prob- 
ability or improbability of what we are told being 
true ; or on the causes of the effect we see sur- 
rounding us. 

Many men will pass through life without ever 
making any use of their reason, beyond the best 
method of getting money and how to enjoy it, 
leaving all the rest unknown or unheeded. 

Others think it is enough to do as they are 
ordered, and believe in religion only because the 
priests require it. But it is a different, a widely 
different case, with the philosophizing part of 
mankind ; they reason on every subject that sends 
an idea to the mind, they are continually seeking 
after truth, and exposing falsehood ; obtaining 
knowledge that therewith they may better the 
condition of themselves and their fellow-men; 
protecting and teaching the practice of morality, 
as the only method calculated to make men free 
and happy, and exposing the errors of religion as 
being the most hostile to their welfare and im- 
provement. 

TO ADVOCATE UNWELCOME TEUTHS KO EASY TASK. 

It is far easier to swim with the tide of popular 
approbation, and to "echo the million" than to 
stand forth as a solitary unit, and advocate an 
opinion unwelcome in its aspect to the general 
corruption of popular sentiment. It is less diffi- 
cult "to fall heirs to our opinions, " and to defend 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 37 

them as people do their estates, by right of inheri- 
tance, than to institute an inquiry, examine their 
character, and, according as that inquiry and ex- 
amination may direct us, to reject or adopt them 
with an honest yet fearless discrimination. 

AGITATION. 

There is a large class of people in the commun- 
ity who always oppose the agitation of any new 
question or doctrine. They are sure that some 
terrible calamity will follow the advent of a newly 
established measure in social or political govern- 
ment. They view a new doctrine with fear and 
distrust. 

Who are these non-agitators? We shall find 
them the least enterprising and the least useful 
folks in the world. If their fathers believed in 
witches, hell-fire, and cloven feet, ten to one, 
those people who are afraid of agitation, believe 
in the same dogmas and follies. They are con- 
tent to be governed by the same laws, satisfied 
with the same station in life, and thankful for as 
much liberty as their ancestors enjoyed, without 
asking any questions or causing any agitation. 
They enjoy life in the same way that an alligator 
enjoys a cold winter, by virtue of pure stupidity. 

The fact is, we owe every improvement of the 
age, every advance in scieiice, government, and 
art, to agitation. It lies at the foundation of all 



38 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

human good. Revolutions and republics trace 
their origin to this source ; liberty of thought and 
of speech are greatly its debtor, and freedom of 
conscience was established through its influence. 
We have nothing to fear from agitation, but every- 
thing to fear from stagnation. The former denotes 
intellectual life : the latter, mental death. If re- 
publicanism ever becomes degenerated in America, 
it will ensue from stagnation in the public mind, 
brought on by selfishness and luxury. It is of 
the utmost importance, then, that exciting topics 
of public interest be constantly kept in view, and 
discussed, not only in regard to our own country, 
but also of other nations. 

The interest of Americans in the affairs of 
Europe is increasing every day, and this interest, 
through agitation, will soon be felt and appreci- 
ciated by the masses of the Europeans, who will 
the sooner strike for their liberties. Keep up 
agitation. It is the watchword of freedom. 
Keep it up. 

OPINIONS. 

In no case can man be justly rewarded or pun- 
ished for his opinions ; they originate not in the 
will, but in the understanding : they are involun- 
tary and not criminal. When the mind perceives a 
sufficient reason or cause for believing a proposi- 
tion, it is evident it must believe it ; it would be 
absurd to say one had seen a sufficient reason for 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 39 

believing a statement and could not believe it ; on 
the other hand, when the mind perceives a reason 
or cause for believing a proposition untrue, the 
mind must believe it untrue because it has seen a 
sufficient reason for it. 

The truth of these observations is evident from 
the absurdity that would follow the contrary sup- 
position, which would be to admit that the mind 
was capable of perceiving a proposition to be 
false, while at the same time it concluded it to be 
true ; or of disbelieving what it had reason to be- 
lieve. Here it is evident that belief of any kind, 
or unbelief of any kind, does not imply moral 
guilt. We must believe what our judgment tells 
us is true, disbelieve what our judgment tells us 
is untrue, and doubt what our judgment has not 
perceived sufficient reason for believing to be 
either true or false. 

There is no crime without a breach of some 
moral law ; but here there is no breach of any 
moral law, but the fulfilment of an imperious law 
of nature, which impels us to disbelieve what we 
do not see reason for believing. 

EXAGGERATION. 

If there be any habit that is universal among 
mankind, it is that of coloring too highly the 
things that we describe. We cannot be content 
with a simple relation of truth ; w^e must exagger- 



40 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

ate, we must have "a little too much red in the 
brush." Whoever heard of a dark night that was 
not "pitch dark," of a strong man that was not 
as " strong as a horse," or a miry road that was 
not "up to the knee"? We would walk fift}^ 
miles on foot to see the man who never caricatures 
a subject on which he speaks. But where is such 
a man to be found ? " From rosy morn to dewy 
eve," in our conversation we are constantly out- 
raging truth. If somewhat wakeful in the night, 
" we scarcely had a wink of sleep " ; if our sleeves 
get a little damp in a shower, " we are as wet as if 
dragged through a brook " ; if a breeze blows up 
while w^e are in the harbor, the waves are sure to 
'^ run mountains high " ; and if a man grows rich, 
we all say, "he rolls in money." No later than 
yesterday, a friend, who would shrink from wilful 
misrepresentation, told us hastily as he passed, 
that the " newspaper had nothing in it but adver- 
tisements." 

THE QUESTION. 

The question to decide is. Are we really to be a 
republic, actually a free people, — free as Nature, 
— free to reason, — free to speak the truth? Is 
there to be a nation on the earth where the rights 
of humanity can truly be enjoyed? where a Soc- 
rates, who exposed the tyrannical shackles imposed 
by the effect of the vulgarly established religious 
prejudices, would not be subjected to religious 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 41 

murder? Are Americans to be a free, intelligent, 
moral, and philosophic people, or are they to be 
merely a Christian people, to continue always 
under the bonds of the Christian superstition? 
Is the country always to continue a mere Christ- 
ian hierarchy, made to answer the ends of a set of 
Christian priests ? Is belief in future rewards 
and punishments to be sustained as law ? Is the 
abominable Christian test oath to be continued a . 
sine qua non for obtaining civil justice ? and are 
conscientious men, who vindicate the truth of 
everlasting nature, to be none but outlaws? Let 
the question be answered. 

THE PRESENT AGE. 

The influence of a more rational education is 
beginning to be felt ; the darkness of superstition 
and bigotry, which has so long shrouded the minds 
of men, is gradually wearing away; enlightenment 
is constantly augmenting, and knowledge is des- 
tined at no very distant day '' to cover the earth 
as the waters cover the channel of the great deep." 
Yet there are those who, instead of rejoicing, seem 
to mourn at these things — these cheering symp- 
toms which speak to us of a brighter day. Surely 
that man's greatness cannot be founded on true 
and just principles which cannot stand the light 
of knowledge and the careful investigation of 
intelligent minds. 



42 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

Educate the people, and you subvert tyranny. 
The people are the source of all political and social 
power, and if to this be added the power which 
knowledge can confer, who or what will be able to 
withstand them? 

The present age is one big with important 
events, and the state of that man's mind is not 
to be envied who can view with cool and careless 
indifference the changing circumstances of the 
present day. And yet many sneer at the social 
and political struggles of the poor man, who im- 
agine that he might be better occupied in attend- 
ing to his daily labor, than in examining into and 
meddling with the affairs of state and society. 
But surely every man who is governed has a right 
to know how he is governed; and it must certainly 
be a government of very doubtful character which 
cannot admit of the examination of any of its sub- 
jects. All forms of political and social adminis- 
tration should progress with the progressing times, 
and a law which has governed a community in the 
days of its comparative ignorance cannot, without 
danger, be enforced when that community has 
attained to anything like social and moral emi- 
nence. 

Has the American nation made such an ad- 
vancement? And if so, has the American gov- 
ernment advanced in a proportionate degree? It 
remains for the American people themselves to 
answer these questions ! If legislation be oppres- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 43 

sive, if there be corruptions that might be eradi- 
cated, if there be new and better laws that might 
be framed, let not the people cease their struggles 
till error be vanquished and truth triumphant. 
They may be opposed, and they will be opposed, 
for the hand of the oppressor is never weary, but 
if they stand firmly and combat bravely, the de- 
sired end will ultimately be gained. The words 
of Byron, — 

*' Methinks I hear a little bird that sings 
The people bye and bye will be the stronger " — 

are fast fulfilling like a prophecy ; and we most 
sincerely bid lightning speed to every effort that 
is made to advance the important cause of social 
and political liberty. 

THOMAS PAINE. 

Thomas Paine was a great apostle of liberty ; a 
bold and fearless enemy of kings and princes ; a 
sterling, uncompromising, unflinching advocate of 
the rights of man, and one of the master-spirits 
of the American Revolution. 

It may be reasonably doubted whether our 
Revolution could have succeeded, at that particu- 
lar time, had the pen of Thomas Paine taken no 
part in the contest ; had he not have written 
" Common Sense " to bring on the war, and the 
various numbers of the "Crisis" to push it 



44 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

through to a glorious and triumphant termina- 
tion. 

Priestcraft has almost entirely destroyed the 
reputation of this great patriot ; and we may 
learn from this fact the exceeding virulence of the 
enemy with which we contend. Had Thomas 
Paine never written against priestcraft, a national 
monument would probably have been erected to 
his memory, and we tremble for the safety of the 
republic when we think of the success of the 
clergy's endeavors to extinguish the fame of this 
celebrated man. When we forget the men who 
gave us our liberty, we shall soon forget that 
priestcraft and kingcraft are the enemies of lib- 
erty, and so we shall become a willing prey. 
Shall it be said that the friends and martyrs of 
liberty must be sacrificed in this country to dig- 
nify a parson's discourse ? Forbid it, justice ! 
Forbid it, all ye who claim the proud title of 
American citizen ! 

SELF-RESPECT. 

One of the strongest and most prevalent incen- 
tives to virtue is the desire of the world's esteem. 
We act right, rather that our actions may be 
applauded by others, than to have the approba- 
tion of our own conscience. We refrain from 
doing wrong not so much from principle, as from 
the fear of incurring the censure of the world. 
A due regard ought, indeed, to be paid to public 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 45 

opinion, but there is a regard we owe ourselves, 
of far greater importance, a regard which keeps 
us from committing a wrong action when with- 
drawn from the observation of tlie world, as much 
as when exposed to its broad glare. If we are as 
good as others, why stand in more fear of others 
than of ourselves ? What is there in other meu 
that makes us desire their approbation, and fear 
their censure, more than our own ? In other 
respects we are apt to overrate ourselves, but 
surely when we pay such blind and servile respect 
to the opinions of others, we forget our own 
dignity, and undervalue ourselves in our own 
esteem. We admire the sentiment of Cassius 
when, speaking of the imperial Caesar, he exclaims : 

** I had as Uef not be, as live to be 
In awe of such a thing as I myself." 

The great slight the men of sense who have 
nothing but sense ; the men of sense despise the 
great, who have nothing but greatness ; and the 
honest man pities them both, if, having greatness 
or sense only, they have no virtue. 

SECTARIANISM. 

There is a powerful influence at work, which 
acts like an electrical element of discord, repel- 
ling with fiery vehemence the efforts of philan- 
thropists and reformers. It is sectarimium^ and it 
produces a state of things whicli brings dishonor 



46 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

on the country. It wastes in paltry contests the 
mental energy that should be applied in improv- 
ing the moral, intellectual, and social condition of 
the people ; it stifles their emotions of benevolence 
and justice ; consumes their substance in building 
chapels and salarying priests; and, worst of all, 
it renders them moral cowards ; for so intense and 
active is sectarian hostility, and so vindictive is its 
spirit, that thousands who see and deplore these 
evils are deterred from attempting to remove 
them. 

They occasion more evil still. They prevent 
the development of the national mind. In our 
universities and schools they direct and control 
and cramp the aspirations of the student. The 
catechism and confession of faith are thrust be- 
tween him and external creation ; he must draw 
his theology from them ; and small encouragement 
is given to him to gather truths from the magnifi- 
cent stores of Nature. The standards of the 
church and they chiefly, mnst constitute his relig- 
ious and moral belief; if he acquires any other 
doctrines, it must be at his peril and by stealth. 
In short, the teaching of Nature is nearly un- 
known ; nay, it is frowned upon, is stigmatized as 
^' Infidel," and the catechism is thrust into the 
reluctant hands of the teacher, to be taught in its 
place. 

There are two questions, wholly distinct, which 
here suggest themselves. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 47 

The first one is of a religious nature — " What 
shall I do to be saved?" This, every man is at 
liberty, in the exercise of an unquestionable 
right, to judge of, and answer for himself. 

Whether it is a momentous subject or not, no 
one has the prerogative to dictate to another what 
he shall believe in regard to it ; and the sect that 
thus intrudes itself between a man and his con- 
science is meddling with what it has no concern. 

The other question, which is the Great Question^ 
is : ^' What shall we do to provide wholesome food, 
comfortable raiment, pleasant dwellings, and the 
harmless luxuries of life, for the poor and indi- 
gent?" This question, the question in fact, of 
the age — the catechism does not answer. 

Sectarianism which relates wholly to an unseen 
and unknown world, does little or nothing for so- 
cial elevation and improvement. The means for 
this great consummation consist of rational edu- 
cation and better circumstances ; when these are 
enjoyed by the poor and overworked laboring 
classes, they will rise to the dignity of intelli- 
gent beings, and cease to wage the hopeless war 
of competition with the steam engine and the 
horse. 

THE WORKING CLASS. 

If the working class had always been as en- 
lightened as any other class of the community, is 
it not certain that the institutions of society, 



48 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

framed and established under the influence of 
such enlightenment, would have been calculated 
to promote their interests at least, equally with 
the interests of any other class of the community? 

They alone were the producers of wealth ; they 
were always superior in numbers; what then 
could it be but want of intelligence that disabled 
them from demanding the formation and estab- 
lishment of institutions which would make them 
who were the only producers, the proprietors and 
enjoyers of at least as great a share of the pro- 
ceeds of their own industry, as any others ? 

Here then is the root of the evil : those who con- 
trolled their destinies were more informed than 
they. Superior information gave them superior 
power ; and having a direct interest in accumu- 
lating the products of other people's labor, (them- 
selves being exempt therefrom) and thus of sub- 
jecting the working classes to endless toil, they 
were induced and enabled by such degrees as each 
succeeding state of society would admit, to frame 
and establish institutions, the almost invariable 
result of which is to render poverty-stricken and 
degraded the condition of the producer, while 
they enrich and aggrandize the indolent consumer. 
Here then we discover the main cause of the deg- 
radation that ever has, and ever will assail the 
workingmen, so long as they continue the lament- 
able subjects of it, and one which nothing can re- 
move but a general diffusion of knowledge through 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 49 

the working class, and an unreserved dissemina- 
tion of truth, particularly in relation to equal 
rights and moral and political economy. 



REFORMERS. 

One of the most common errors of mankind 
(says the Brooklyn Eagle) is the confidence 
which is reposed in organizations to cherish and 
promote reforms. They look to the regular 
schools of medicine for reforms in the practice of 
medicine ; to the regular schools of divinity for a 
proper construction of all questions of morals ; 
and to the apostles of science for the true theories 
of all natural laws. And yet it would seem that 
all great discoveries, great reforms, and great de- 
velopments of truth have been resisted by the 
schools, and have made their way against the 
prejudices of those who should have been their 
promoters, but who, blinded by their interests, or 
the conservative influence of the schools, have 
been unable to perceive the truth, and have stood 
like a rock against it. 

The great movements of the world have gener- 
ally commenced among those who were apparently 
the least calculated to advance them ; among 
those who were weak in power and influence. 
The advocates of political liberty are not the pow- 
erful princes and barons, who could, if they chose, 
establish it at once and without struggle or blood- 



60 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

shed. Christianity began in the family of a 
poor mechanic and was rejected by priests and 
rulers and the great doctors of its early days. 
The great reformation began with a poor monk, 
and was resisted by the Church, which was organ- 
ized on purpose to promote purity in doctrine, 
and purity in morals. The late reforms under 
Wesley and Whitfield, and the strict notions of 
the reformers were ridiculed, and their persons 
held in contempt and subjected to insult; and 
the discoverer of the true movements of the heav- 
enly bodies, the discoverer of the circulation of the 
blood, and the discoverer of the true theory of 
storms, all had the mortification to see their great 
ideas rejected by the world of science. 

Questions of right cannot be settled, therefore, 
by the ipse dixit of the schoolmen, or high officers 
of state, or distinguished magnates in the walks 
of science. Truth is constantly battling with 
error, and those who fight against it the hardest 
are generally its sworn ministers. The great re- 
former of Nazareth was put to death by the or- 
thodox doctors of his day, for his heresies; and 
since his time, a whole army of martyrs have suf- 
fered for believing doctrines which in later times 
have come to be received as settled axioms. 

These things teach us caution in deciding on 
anything new. The worst tribunal to which an 
outside truth can be submitted, is the regular 
school. Your true schoolman rejects everything 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 51 

which is not in his books, and frowns on all 
new discoveries which do not originate with his 
party. 

LIBERTY. 

Liberty is an old word, but of changeable mean- 
ing. Not many j^ears ago it had a very limited 
sense. That nation was supposed to possess liberty 
that was uncontrolled by any other. In 1776 it 
took a wider meaning, and implied not only na- 
tional independence, but a right to choose our 
own form of government and select our own 
rulers. The victory we gained was to secure this 
liberty to the world. This was a giant stride in 
the march of human emancipation. Man seemed 
in this mighty leap to have outstripped himself; 
and considering what he had been, what he is now 
in most countries, it is not strange that his achieve- 
ments appeared almost incredible. But, by a 
close inspection, with the eye of the philosopher, 
of the philanthropist, we shall easily discover that 
we then only gained the starting-point, merely 
opened the lists to human reason and human per- 
fectibility. 

Liberty has yet a wider sense — one vastly 
more important than national independence, or 
the right to choose our own government and rulers. 
With these, man is but half free. There is a 
more subtile and a more powerful tyrant that 
lurks within and enslaves the mind. Religion, 



52 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

custom, habit, influence of wealth, of some adven- 
titious circumstance, may make or keep the many 
vassals to the few. Men thus circumstanced are 
the veriest slaves that live. There are no chains 
like those which fetter the mind. There must be 
MENTAL as well as political liberty. The timid 
slave of custom may be a vile minion of power, 
and make his body a footstool for the aspiring 
demagogue to clamber into office ; but it belongs 
not to such as he to detect, seize, and secure the 
rights of man. Genuine Republicanism must rest 
on MENTAL LIBERTY, or it wiU havc neither beauty 
nor permanence. 

MOTIVES. 

It is the motive, more than anything else, that 
renders an action good or bad. However fair the 
appearance of an action may be, if the right 
motive be wanting, the action is hollow; if the 
motive be a bad one, the action is rotten to the 
core. . Who cares for an outward seeming, or show 
of affection unless the heart be also on the same 
terms ? Who does not prize a rough outside, 
when it covers an honest inside, more than the 
most fawning fondness from a heart that is cold 
and false ? Thus it is right to insist on the princi- 
ples for their own sake, because the principles give 
their value to the action, not the action to the 
principles, for they are but dross. The principles 
are the gold on which is to be placed the stamp, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 53 

and if the gold is not good, the stamp, though it 
often deceives the people, gives it no real worth ; 
as he who graves the queen's image on base metal 
is punished for his forgery. 

YIETUE AND RELIGION. 

We have no idea of permitting any man, who 
assumes the garb of piety, to claim, in conse- 
quence, any preeminence in virtue. We prize 
truth above all things, and it is quite time that we 
understood the just distinction between virtue 
and religion. 

We consider, then, that religion is not even pre- 
'sumptive evidence of virtue. Religion is a belief 
in a superintending Providence, who is swerved 
by prayer, and who yields to the supplications of 
the penitent. This belief is compatible, as all 
experience teaches, with great moral obliquity in 
the same individual, or it may unite with great 
virtue in the same person. Religion, therefore, 
offers no proof of a good life, but it is evidence 
of great selfishness. God or Nature has made self- 
interest the rule of action in man ; to say that a 
man acts without self-interest is to say that he 
moves without a motive power. The broad, nat- 
ural distinction, therefore, — all men being equally 
selfish, — between virtue and vice, that distinc- 
tion which is founded in the nature of things, we 
take to be this : the virtuous man pursues his 



54 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

self-interest, his self-gratification, so as never to 
invade the rights of others, and to administer as 
much to the happiness of his fellows as lies in his 
power; the vicious man pursues his self-interest, 
his self-gratification, regardless of the rights and 
interests of his fellows. 

If this definition be founded in nature, it fol- 
lows that religion is not evidence of virtue. The 
religious man works for his reward, and, like the 
adventurous merchant, makes a long investment ; 
he is willing to endure much here for the benefit 
of the long and happy hereafter, which lies in 
prospect. Let us, then, take religious people as 
we find them ; try them by their conduct towards 
mankind, and not by their belief, or by their rites ' 
towards their God. If you find a kind, benevo- 
lent, just-dealing man, call him what he is — a virtu- 
ous, good citizen. If you see an intolerant, egotis- 
tical, vain, persecuting man, though he beat the 
pulpit for a living, and pray loud at conference 
meetings, class him among the vicious — it is his 
natural rank. 

BAD INTENTIONS. 

It is in the power of the abusive to charge 
men with intentions which they never enter- 
tained — with motives which their hearts abhor. 
The innocent conduct of individuals may be 
easily misinterpreted, and such misinterpretation 
will be readily adopted by the prejudiced and un- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 55 

reflecting, who are ever willing to suit things to 
their own malignant purposes. It is wiser, then, 
for us, who declare the truth of everlasting Nat- 
ure, by prudent, good, and regular conduct, to 
acquire such a character as will explain to the im- 
partial observer, the purity of the motives by 
which we are actuated, in cases in which our 
views are ungenerously or maliciously misrepre- 
sented. We sacrifice our personal interests ; we 
incur the rancor of clerical malice ; we resign 
all that others prize as pleasures and advantages — 
for the sake of virtue, reason, and truth ; and we 
enjoy a fecility unknown to the ignorant and 
superstitious. 

THE WOELD MOVES. 

States of society, and forms of government 
have always been forced upon men by the com- 
mon march of events ; and that state of society or 
form of government which existed at one period 
of a nation's history, and was sufficient for all its 
wants, will not be tolerated at a later period. 
Who, at the present day, would wish to return to 
a state of society, with its accompanying manners 
and form of government, and religious institu- 
tions, such as existed in Great Britain in the time 
of the Druids, or the Romans, or the Saxons, or 
the Normans? How many Protestants would 
wish to revive the days when Catholicism was in 
its glory and its power, and the brand of persecu- 
tion dried up the blood of the martyrs ? 



56 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

These changes were but manifestations of the 
common progress of things, and they all happened 
naturally and unavoidably, independent of the 
control of governments or individuals. Catholi- 
cism succeeded Paganism ; then Protestantism 
came after Catholicism, and both are now being 
superseded by Dissent ; and all the evils which 
these changes brought upon the people of other 
days, as well as all the miseries that have befallen 
nations in our own times, are solely attributable 
to the insane and blasphemous endeavors of hu- 
man rulers to set up their authority against 
Reason and Progress, and to tell man he shall go 
no farther. 

And have all the treasures wasted and the 
blood spilled — all the persecutions and punish- 
ments and revolting crimes which have taken 
place to keep man and his institutions stationary, 
effected the object for which they were intended ? 
Turn to history for an answer, — look back from 
our days, to the days of our forefathers, and ask 
if any of the many powerful endeavors to prevent 
changes, ever yet succeeded. 



RELIGION AND LIBERALISM. 

When the assertion is made that the Christian 
religion has always, from the day of its origin, 
been the promoter of strife and discord, the gener- 
ality of men regard you with the stare of incredu- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 57 

lity. They do not believe it, or cannot understand 
how it can be possible. They have always heard 
Christianity spoken of as the parent of peace and 
harmony; and they cannot for a moment imagine 
that she could ever in any way, directly or indi- 
rectly, support or countenance war or bloodshed. 
The assertion of the skeptic is denied with no 
little warmth, and he is pointed to this great Re- 
public as a living refutation of his charge. 

We have no religious wars here, but we are a 
Christian people, nevertheless, and therefore it is 
false to say that religion is the promoter of strife 
and contention. 

True, we have no religious wars among us, but 
we are not quite certain that their absence is 
owing to the humanizing tendences of Christianity. 
We attribute it altogether to the increase of 
Mental Liberty, the offspring of Liberal or Infidel 
Principles ; and to Political Liberty, the offspring 
of Republicanism. 

Some two hundred years ago, when these sav- 
ing principles were but imperfectly understood, or 
hardly understood at all, men and women were 
tortured and put to death in this country, for re- 
ligion's sake. There was no lack of Christianity 
among those Pilgrim Fathers who instigated and 
carried out the frightful persecutions of their 
day — in fact they committed them under the 
guidance and direction of Christianity, as they 
understood it ; and if Massachusetts was as relis;- 



68 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

ious at the present time, as she was when she 
hanged the Quakers for their religion, she would 
hang Quakers still. 

But all this brutality has come to an end, and 
we now enjoy comparative freedom of conscience; 
and we owe the blessing entirely to the intro- 
duction and dissemination of Liberalism. It has 
stopped the taking of life for opinion's sake, and 
eventually, as it increases and becomes popular, 
will remove every species of persecution. But 
Christianity never did and never can, from its 
very. nature, exercise this benevolent spirit, be- 
cause its nature is bigotry. Give either of the 
two great denominations of Christians, Catholics, 
or Protestants, supreme power, and neither of 
them would show any mercy to dissenters. Their 
histor}^ confirms the truth of this assertion. They 
both have persecuted, and do still, to the extent 
they dare to go ; and they would go farther were 
it not for the counteracting barrier of Liberalism, 
which lies like an impregnable mountain across 
their path. In our own country there is more 
Liberalism than in any other, and hence there is 
less persecution to be met with than in any other. 
But no thanks to Christianity for this superiority. 
It is all due to Liberalism, which, while it teaches 
the honest inquirer his rights and duties, stands a 
wall of defence to shield him from the remorseless 
vengeance of religious bigotry. Take away this 
shield, and let Christianity have no opposing force, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 59 

and there would be nothing to save the doubter 
of to-day from experiencing the fate of the Quak- 
ers in the early times of New England. 

Liberalism, not Christianity, is what has given 
us our free institutions and the degree of political 
and mental liberty we possess. The system of 
Christianity, which was originated some eighteen 
hundred years ago, may have been as good a one 
as the people to whom it was given were capable 
of appreciating ; but as it neither allowed nor 
contemplated anything like improvement in its 
principles, it would seem to belong to another 
age, while Liberalism, gathering knowledge from 
the march of reason and the discoveries of science, 
is enabled to improve upon the past, and offer a 
system more in accordance with Truth and Nature. 



SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

The early object of Sunday schools, why they 
were first established (in England) by Robert 
Raikes and kindred minds, was apparently a be- 
nevolent, not a religious object. 

There were thousands of English children who 
were so constantly employed in labor during week- 
days, that Sunday was the only day when they 
had any leisure to attend school. This day was 
usually spent by them in idleness, mischief, and 
vice. It was very important, therefore, that they 
should have an opportunity afforded for acquiring 



60 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

knowledge and good principles on the only day 
when the overwhelming avarice of the rich men 
of society could afford them any leisure. We 
have not the historical documents before us, and 
therefore cannot quote them ; but these docu- 
ments would show that the ostensible object of 
the originators of Sunday schools was benevolent 
and praiseworthy. Scarcely had these schools 
become general, before the}^ were diverted from 
their original and proper object. 

It was found that those poor children who had 
no time for attending school during the week, 
were needed as servants for another -kind of labor 
on the Sabbath. The avarice of society would 
allow them no rest, even on the day of rest. But 
the Sabbath schools were found to be an excellent 
institution in the hands of the church and the 
priesthood, for extending their power and influ- 
ence. Sermons, and the other usual services at 
church, produced but little effect upon the minds 
of children, and all the labor of this kind of teach- 
ing devolved upon the pastor. In the Sunday 
schools, on the contrary, children were made the 
special objects of attention, they could be in- 
structed in that way which would be most agree- 
able to them; and the burden would be laid upon 
the shoulders of men and women, of various ages, 
who might be interested in the work, and ambi- 
tious for a little notoriety. 

Thus were Sunday schools at length made uni- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 61 

versal ; and so far has their original object been 
forgotten, that the children of the poor are hardly 
seen there, unless they are well instructed during 
the week, so as to be able and qualified to receive 
the religious instruction, there given. If poor 
children cannot learn to read during the week, 
they cannot be taught to read at the Sunday 
school. Not bj^ any means. Such instruction 
would be deemed by the pious hypocrites of the 
present day, as a profanation of the holy Sabbath. 
Christianity, however, is making its death-strug- 
gles. Its supporters are obliged to use every arti- 
fice that human ingenuity can invent to keep it 
alive. We shall soon be divided into Infidels and 
Catholics. Protestantism is fast running into 
Infidelity. 

EEVERE:tTCE FOR OLD DOCTRINES. 

Reverence for the opinions of one's ancestry is 
one of the most remarkable of all humbugs. It 
is not so much a natural sentiment as one indus- 
triously inculcated by the deceivers of men, as 
tending to promote the atability of all established 
errors, prejudices and pernicious customs. It is a 
doctrine very favorable to the permanency of aris- 
tocratic institutions, but fatal to Republicanism. 
Men are taught to identify themselves with their 
ancestors, that they may respect their prejudices, 
upon which the power of the privileged classes is 
established. For this reason they are taught to 



62 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

regard it as the greatest reproach to forsake their 
fathers' follies, superstitions, and errors. 

That feeling which is most assiduously cherished 
in the tender mind is reA^erence. This is the 
humbug by which in later life men may be blindly 
led into subjection. They are taught to banish 
all self-reliance from their minds, to place no con- 
fidence in their own powers, but to rely solely 
upon the godliness and wisdom of those men who, 
from compassion for their natural inability to 
reason, have furnished them with leading-strings, 
that they may not go astray. 

The first lesson which is taught to youth is 
reverence. His reverence and obedience are to 
compensate him for the sacrifice he has made of 
his reasoning powers and common-sense on the 
altar of superstition. He is taught to reverence 
the clergy — not for their virtues, for they may 
have no virtues — but to reverence their persons, 
and their opinions also. He is taught to rever- 
ence the instructors of his childhood, instructors 
always appointed through the influence of the • 
clergy, that he may receive implicitly all the 
errors which hoodwinkers have established for 
their own interested purposes. 

Men are taught to venerate the holy bandage 
which is placed over the eyes of their minds, and 
which disposes them piously to be guided by 
others, rather than to follow the wicked and blind 
guidance of their own natural reason. They are 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 63 

taught that the unpardonable sin would be to 
remove the bandage, which was placed over their 
eyes with the highest regard for their temporal 
and eternal good. Divested of this bandage, they 
would no longer reverence their errors and preju- 
dices, and the pious authors of humbugs and dia- 
bolical deceptions ; they would forsake religion 
and follow after the understanding of their own 
hearts, and in the ways of philosophy and com- 
mon sense. They would prefer the light of their 
own minds to the darkness of superstition. Hence 
nothing so greatly offends the blindfolded people, 
no less than their hoodwinkers, as to witness a 
fellow-citizen declaring his mental independence, 
and shaking off his reverence for their blind 
guides. 

COURAGE. 

No man was ever truly great, no man ever ac- 
complished great things, who did not possess tran- 
quil, steadfast, immovable courage. When once 
an opinion is formed on good grounds, when once, 
after due reflection, a determination is taken, it 
should be persisted in at every hazard of personal 
consequence. It is better to fall than to bend ; to 
be broken than to yield. This secures the respect 
and admiration of enemies, if not their approbation 
and concurrence. The opposite course is as impoli- 
tic as it is weak. Defeat then becomes disgrace ; 
misfortune carries with it degradation. The 



64 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

wounds of the prostrate combatant are all in the 
back ; his very scars are not those of honor, but 
of shame. To be weak is miserable. Discom- 
fiture is more certain, and is sullied and aggra- 
vated by contempt. Nothing is ever gained by 
cowardice ; nothing is ever achieved by concession 
as to principle. This but renders a triumphing 
foe more haughty, insolent, and relentless. The 
best way to avoid danger, as the Irishman said, is 
to meet it. 

To a really elevated mind, opposition is but a 
stimulus to greater exertion, an incentive to more 
strenuous effort. What merit is there in a vic- 
tory easily achieved ? What glory is it to tri- 
umph over obstacles that are light, to overpower 
an enemy who is weak ? Danger is the element of 
true greatness, the atmosphere in which it lives, 
and moves and has its being. Resistance but 
kindles the resolution of exalted courage. Ob- 
loquy, misrepresentation, prejudice, ignorance, 
envy, passion, these hideous shapes are mere 
phantoms which vanish before the glance of de- 
termination, and are at once exposed and laid 
open by a voice of power and intrepidity. 

FEEE SPEECH. 

It is much to be lamented that too many peo- 
ple yet conceive that there are some opinions 
which ought not to be tolerated, as they imagine 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 65 

the free expression of them would tend to disor- 
ganize society, by subverting what they believe to 
be the foundation of virtue. How can any danger 
possibly arise from the unrestrained expression of 
any opinions whatever, where reason and truth are 
left free to combat them ? It is time the world 
had done with such groundless apprehensions ; 
they have been sources of infinite mischief in all 
ages, and in every country. 

Such people breathe the very spirit of despot- 
ism, and wish to communicate it. It is impossi- 
ble not to infer from their apprehensions, that, as 
men increase in knowledge, they must see reason 
to disapprove the systems established. How can 
that mind be constituted which contemplates the 
progress of human knowledge as matter of regret 
or fear ? The wider the diffusion of knowledge, 
the better the people are informed, the more they 
understand — the more likely they are to see and 
comprehend what is for their good, and the means 
by which that good is to be attained ; the more 
likely they are to abstain from such means as 
would be prejudicial in their operation, and calcu- 
lated rather for the prevention than the attainment 
of that good. 

THE CLOSING YEAK. 

'* Nothing is lasting on the world's wide stage, 
As sung, and wisely sung, the Grecian sage ; 
And man, who through the globe extends his sway, 
Reigns but the sovereign creature of a day. 



66 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

One generation comes ; another goes ; 
Time blends the happy with the man of woes ; 
A different face of things each age appears ; 
And all things alter in a course of years." 

We are just now passing one of those mile- 
stones that mark the progress we have made in 
the journey of existence. The occasion suggests 
to us the inestimable value of time, which is 
given to man for his improvement. By the 
protraction of life, opportunities are afforded for 
our growth in knowledge and in usefulness. We 
were not raised into being, that we might be idle 
spectators of the objects with which we are sur- 
rounded. The situation in which we are placed 
demands reiterated exertion. The sphere in 
which we move calls for the putting forth all the 
ability with which we may be endowed. 

Inquiries therefore should be made, how im- 
provements can be best effected, either in our 
individual or social capacities. This conduct will 
reflect an honor on our rationality ; this train 
of action will elevate us in the scale of being, 
and impart a zest to our enjoyment. It is said 
that the elder Cato repented of three things — 
and one of them was his having passed a day 
without improvement. 

"We know not Avhat to-morrow may bring- 
forth" — and it is best for us that we do not. 
The anticipation of our joys or of our griefs is often 
a burden too heavy to be borne. Pretentions, in- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 67 

deed, are made to a knowledge of our future des- 
tiny; but the imposition has been detected and 
exposed. Our wisest way is to throw the reins 
over a vain curiosity. Contented with that por- 
tion of information which is commensurate with 
our faculties, and congenial with our present situ- 
ation, let us devote our knowledge to the benefit 
of humanity, and resolve that before we — "Bid 
the working world good-night, " we will make it 
some better for our having lived in it. 

THE UNKNOWN. 

It is rather a singular fact, that, taking man- 
kind as we find them, they appear to be confident 
of some things in proportion as they are ignorant 
of them. 

The "next world" is one of these things. 
Who hiows anything concerning it? Nobody. 
The most learned man that ever lived, has no 
more actual knowledge of it than the most illiter- 
ate ; and yet, when an honest and candid person 
questions the fact of its existence, he is regarded 
as very foolish, and as not a little wicked, 
withal; — while he who is obstreperously confi- 
dent of its existence, and makes the assertion 
with the most dogmatic assurance, is thought to 
be possessed of great erudition and eminent vir- 
tue. Strange test of knowledge and goodness — • 
yet how common ! 



68 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

The "next world!" For thousands of years 
have dreamers transmitted to their own and suc- 
ceeding generations, the task of meditating upon 
a future existence, and still the whole subject is 
involved in impenetrable darkness. Man, un- 
fortunately for himself, through the influence of 
erroneous teaching, wishes to exceed the limits of 
his sphere, and to transport himself beyond the 
visible world; he neglects experience, and feeds 
himself with conjectures. Early prepossessed 
against reason, he neglects its cultivation. Pre- 
tending to know his fate in another world, he is 
inattentive to his happiness in the present. We 
torment our lives by an insatiable desire of know- 
ing and comprehending an imaginary state of ex- 
istence, and perceive not the simple realities that 
comprise the extent of all possible knowledge. 
Could we be satisfied with facts and realities, and 
taking one world at a time, endeavor to make it 
what it should be, superseding Faith and Bigotry 
with Reason and Humanity, we should fit man- 
kind to live properly here ; and when this life is 
done they are properly prepared to live hereafter — 
admitting there is any. 

WHAT WILL YOU SUBSTITUTE FOE. BELIGION ? 

1 It is said by those, who, having been driven to 

I their last stronghold in the cause of religion, and 

who, finding it no longer tenable upon its own in- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 69 

trinsic merits, are about to abandon its defence, 
that it would be better, infinitely better, not to 
remove this long-sanctioned curb upon the evil 
passions of mankind, even though there should be 
nothing real in it ; that it would be vastly prefer- 
able not to demolish this ancient hedge round 
about the innocent and goodly disposed, even 
though it should be found to be but ,a baseless 
fabric, or, at best, founded upon mere inference. 

Now it so happens, that in order to maintain 
this curb, so called, the perpetuation of ignorance, 
absolute ignorance, in the mass is indispensable. 
Light and knowledge threaten its utter destruc- 
tion; for darkness, ignorance, and superstition 
are entirely unnecessary to the true happiness 
and wellbeing of man ; and more and worse than 
that, they are extremely deleterious, except it be 
for the aggrandizement of a comparatively incon- 
siderable portion of the heritage. They must, 
they will be dispelled — it is contrary to the nat- 
ure of things that they should forever exist. 

But what shall be set up in the place of exist- 
ing religion ? has been asked. 

Set nothing up as dogmatic and arbitrary, but 
cultivate a moral principle in the breast of man, 
without reference to, and totally independent of, 
any separate existence. Let him rely upon no 
superstruction that is not founded upon known 
facts. Instead of a long and incomprehensible 
creed, let his motto consist of these three words : 



70 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

INJUEE NO ONE. Whenever the question occurs 
with respect to the omission or commission of any 
act in the affairs of life, instead of referring for 
sanction to scripture, to the church, the ministry ; 
to custom or fashion, let him ask himself the 
simple question, " Is the thing in itself right and 
proper to be done, or not done ? " as the case 
may be ; and as his best judgment shall dictate, 
so let him govern himself. This course would 
ensure salvation economically; and instead of 
man inheriting the costly necessity of redemption, 
it would be rendered needless to him, by his 
refraining from evil. It is impossible to calculate 
the amount of benefit to the family of man, in 
every point of view, were they to direct their 
united energies to these important points, instead 
of wasting them upon a sj'stem that will be 
found to be but as a broken reed, and a zeal for 
which, in many instances, has almost eaten them 
up. In his pecuniary resources, in this country 
alone, there would be a saving of millions of dol- 
lars annually, if man would abandon his servility 
to the church, and learn and follow the philosophy 
that is according to Nature and Reason. 

INDIVIDUALITY. 

Why should a man be afraid to be alone in his 
opinion? Somebody was once alone in about 
everything that is said, done, and believed in the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 71 

world. One man, of all the millions, had in his 
great heart and measureless thought, the first seed 
of this whole order of things in which we live. 
A printing-press, a railroad, a steam engine, a 
plough, a system of education, moral reform, — 
Christianity itself is but the vibration of an indi- 
vidual force. There never was a giant but was a 
baby once ; there is not a gigantic thing now, 
that was not once little. This very America, the 
sea-bed of all Anglo-Saxondom, into which it 
claims the right to flow and swallow everything 
else, was once, practically, as it were, in the liead 
of a Genoese navigator, and it was not without 
headaching and severe throbs that it was ever got 
out. 

It is not without trial and long toil, that a unit 
can swell itself to a host, that one long desire, 
finding words on one solitary tongue, can gather 
force enough to shake the nations ; but as surelj^ as 
it is great and true, it will be heard thrilling down 
to remotest time. Do you know that a thought, 
if true, is of import to the world ? What if you, 
only, are its possessor ? 

That one thought shall be the centre of an 
ever-widening power, whose larger circles shall 
embrace, first you, then yours, and the world and 
worlds in their growing rings. Doubtless it re- 
quires courage and faith to be the announcer of a 
new truth which is to whelm old systems of oppres- 
sion and falsehood in wide ruin, and beat hope out 



72 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

of a tliousand blind hearts in the waste of their 
cherished error ; but let us remember that a holier 
hope shall be wafted to a million hearts now hope- 
less, and- the pained thousand shall be blessed as 
well as these. 

How can the man be other than heroic, who 
feels within him the throes of a universal good, 
eager to be born of his kingly mind, who knows 
that the thought now throbbing in his brain may- 
yet fill empires, years, and ages, with its blessed 
benediction ? What are racks and inquisitions to 
him ? What the poor wooden stocks of public 
opinion, or the hour's penance in the petty pillory 
of a little people's scorn? He makes his very 
outlawry his servant; the prison, to which mad 
parties doom him, shuts him out from babble and 
in with conscience and his own mind, and the 
pillory of hate and scorn becomes a pulpit under 
his feet, from which to reach the ears of thousands 
who had else not heard him. Valiant hearts have, 
gone dead or mad, for the want of just such 
a field as the world opens now to the heroic, a 
field for intense action, calm-browed daring, and 
a bloodless victory. One eager for renown could 
ask no prouder laurels than wave in the path of 
reform. But the disciple of Truth has a higher 
arm than Fame's to rest his calm faith on ; he feels 
the love of Right to be its own reward. 

Only give a man a heart full of some good 
work, and he is not long in forgetting that he is 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 73 

alone in it, and learns readily that bugbears are 
the smallest of bears, that scarecrows will not 
scare men, and that hisses and hate, and gibbets 
even, are transient and petty things when seen in 
the light of an everlasting Truth. He can very 
cheaply dare to be hated by all earth's bigotry, 
who puts all earth's clear-eyed esteem in debt to 
him, and makes the whole future the rich banker 
of his fame. A few shallow years hiss round his 
quiet steps, and whole cycles chant melodious 
hymns to his high praise, after all reptile scorn 
has gone dead and dumb forever. The bold truth 
he spoke from lone corners to a few dull ears, 
begins to echo million-voiced from all the nations 
made glad in its power, and the smiles of joy, the 
deepened sense of life and good, the immeasur- 
able delights of heart and mind, all grown from 
that accumulating thought, are the sweet notes 
that make the high psalm of his praise. 

It matters not to the world-helper whether his 
name lives in the memory of those he has blessed, 
or dies with his body. If he remembers what was 
done, sees what is doing, and delights in the joy 
of earth, he is filled already ; and if he does not 
pierce the veil, what matters to him the echo of 
a name he never hears ? But Truth and Right do 
not defer their gifts. The doing good is the hav- 
ing. One shall not need to look to his neighbor, 
to the future, or the promises of the past, to find 
a price for his truthfulness. The flower asks no 



74 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

reward for shedding odors on the thankless air, — 
nay, does not even question if the sweet breath is 
needed ; but, from a full and blushing heart, pours 
out the warm delight without measure, careless of 
recompense or fellowship. So, from the depth of 
a large humanity, the brother of suffering men 
breathes an unceasing soul of goodness round him, 
so that all hungry hearts may feed upon his kind- 
ness, and all benighted minds drink light into 
their opening eyes from that free-pouring and 
exhaustless fountain. 



FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 

The incorrect definition of words is the cause 
of many errors, and of almost all disputes. The 
words free press, one would at first suppose 
meant a press open to the free discussion of all 
subjects on religion, morals, politics, and physics. 
But where is such a press to be found ? Hardly 
in our country, the foundation of whose political 
institutions ought to be freedom and equality. 
All presses that have yet been called free are 
trammelled by two kinds of restrictions : law, and 
the prejudices of public opinion in favor of certain 
religious dogmas, party politics, etc. 

In a country where the publishing of truth is 
considered a libel, and punished as such, the press 
cannot be called free ; or when publishing any- 
thing contrary to the dogmas of any species of 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 75 

religion is a crime, piiiiishable by fine and impris- 
onment, the wovdifree^ applied to the press, is cer- 
tainly a misnomer. In all nations, any one may 
publish in favor of the ruling politics or religion, 
but in few is any one , tolerated to publish any- 
thing against them ; he is either physically 
punished by law, or morally injured by the 
persecution of those who, differing in opinion 
from him, assume the right of slandering and cal- 
umniating him for opinion's sake. 

Complete toleration, physical and moral, exists 
nowhere ; and often where the physical restric- 
tions are most rigorous, the moral are most toler- 
ant. Almost all the presses in our mercantile 
towns are hired and paid by the advertisements 
to advocate the monied and merchantile aristoc- 
racy; free and open to everything in favor of 
their supporters, and shut against every species 
of reasoning, be it ever so true, that can militate 
against them. All such presses cannot pretend to 
be called free. All political party, and all secta- 
rian religious, presses are excluded from the list 
of free presses. Why boast of the free press of the 
United States, when there is not one in a hun- 
dred that has the least pretensions to the honor- 
able title ? 

Would it not be better, and save much error 
and deception, to call everything by its proper 
name, that would designate its properties? For 
instance, this press is supported by the monied 



76 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and merchantile aristocracies, to advocate their 
interests ; that press is in favor of the govern- 
ment of the few over the many ; one is in favor of 
the election of one man for President, and some of 
another ; one is in favor of one religious sect, and 
some of another. Let us not permit the shop that 
deals only in whiskey, to pretend to sell bread. 

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION. 

An argument, be it good or bad, addresses 
itself never to the will, but always to the under- 
standing. Whatever be the obstacles it has to 
combat, it acts by its own intrinsic force alone ; 
and that is extraneous to our volition, and not 
controllable by it. But as a man's conduct, 
in this preliminary respect, can only be known 
accurately to himself, all laws for the punish- 
ment of opinions are acts of injustice and cru- 
elty. All blame thrown upon a man, because 
his opinions are different from our own, is 
unjust. He has formed his opinion on such 
evidence as occurred to him, and we have done 
the same. 

This view of the subject leads to charitable 
conclusions, to mutual forbearance and toleration. 
We are all in search of truth. It is never desir- 
able to be misled or mistaken. If we are in error, 
and our neighbor has discovered the truth, it is 
the necessary result of his having enjoyed better 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 77 

means and opportunities, natural or acquired, 
than we have. Ought this to be a cause of anger 
and animosity against us? Our want of knowl- 
edge is a misfortune, not a crime, and charity 
should so consider it, provided always we do not 
conjoin bad passions and intolerant behavior to 
erroneous opinions. 

As volition relates to actions only, and not to 
opinions, it follows that praise or blame, merit or 
demerit, reward or punishment, should be applied 
to actions only, and not to opinions. Punishment 
may produce resentment and hardness of heart, 
but it can never convince. Are we allowed to 
confute our adversary by replying to the major of 
his syllogism by a blow on the head ; to his minor 
by imprisoning his person; or to his conclusion 
by setting the populace against him, as if he were 
a mad dog, unworthy of all argument ? Yet, how 
often has this been done ! Na}^ at this very day, 
how common is the practice ! And how much 
more common would it be, if public opinion did 
not show strong symptoms of dislike to persecu- 
tion, whether for political errors, or theological 
heresies. 

REFLECTIONS. 

Choice by no means proves liberty, since hesi- 
tation only finishes w^hen the will is determined 
by sufficient motives, and man cannot hinder mo- 
tives from acting upon the will. The motive 



78 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

which determines the will is always the most 
powerful. 

A little reflection will suffice to convince us 
that man is necessitated in all his actions. His 
ideas, opinions, and notions, true or false, are nec- 
essary fruits of his education ; his passions and 
desires are necessary consequences of his natural 
temperament, and of the ideas with which he has 
been inspired. During his whole life, his volitions 
and actions are determined by his connections, 
habits, business, pleasures, conversations, and the 
thoughts that are involuntarily presented to his 
mind. He can desire and will, only what he 
judges advantageous or pleasing to himself; he is 
necessitated to choose what he judges most useful 
and agreeable. 

When we trace the true principles of our ac- 
tions, we find that they are alwa3^s necessary con- 
sequences of our volitions and desires, which are 
never in our power. If the wicked act necessarily 
according to the impulses of their evil natures, 
society, in punishing them, acts necessarily by the 
desire for safety and preservation. 

Reward and punishment are to be considered 
as the motives which should be employed to 
procure the adoption or abandonment of any 
given line of conduct. The doctrine of necessity 
does not in the least diminish the disapprobation 
of vice. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 79 



MOTHERS — CHILDREN. 



" Every nation that has become great has had a 
race of noble matrons. Roman mothers made 
Roman men." 

There is an important truth contained in this 
short paragraph, and it may not be uninteresting 
to make it the subject of a few reflections. The 
place which children hold in society depends very 
essentially, no doubt, on the character and con- 
duct of the mother. In this busy nation, a hus- 
band is commonly too much occupied in his own 
affairs, to devote his thoughts and time to any 
systematic course of discipline. The sum of duty, 
comprising manners, cleanliness, associates, time 
out of school, amusements, morals, religious im- 
pressions, example, precept, temper and gentle- 
ness, depends mainly on the mother. She com- 
monly feels the weight of her responsibility, and 
is willing faithfully to acquit herself of it. But 
she deserves every possible encouragement from 
her husband. The husband too often thwarts her 
purposes by interposing his own contradictory 
views. If he thinks he can do any good by his 
better knowledge, the medium of influence is 
through the mother. If he can kindly convince 
her of some better mode, he will best promote the 
common w^elfare by that coarse, and can do no 
greater mischief than by laying down rules that 
imply the insignificance of her judgment. It 



80 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

should be remembered that the prominent bless- 
ing of civilized society as to human life, is that it 
has made woman the joint and equal partner in 
domestic interests. If parents desire to make 
their children feel contempt for the authority of 
both of them, the readiest way to do it is to dis- 
pute in their presence. Which of them is a child 
to obey ? 

The bringing up of children is a fearful respon- 
sibility. So great is it that many parents feel 
that if they were not involved in it, and could 
have foreknown what it is, they never would have 
assumed it. But this distrust and dissatisfaction 
are, in part, from their own errors. Have they 
ever seriously thought how this duty should be 
performed ? What books have they read ? With 
whom have they conversed ? What have they 
learned as to the best means of promoting the 
true interests of their offspring ? If they have 
done nothing to inform themselves, how can they 
be instructors to others ? Not only are parents 
bound to know what is right, but they are bound 
to know how to use knowledge in a right manner. 
One rule to-day, and a discordant one to-morrow ; 
harshness and severity at one time, and the most 
weak and injurious indulgence at another, are 
poor qualities for instructors. There must be in 
these matters, as in everything else, a best way. 
It may be found somewhere in, or extracted from, 
these principles. Children have as good a right 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 81 

to be happy as their* seniors. Their happiness 
consists in having and doing what will make them 
intellectually capable, morally correct and amia- 
ble, and physically pure and strong. These ends 
will be obtained by a systematic regularity, mildly 
and kindly, but certainly, enforced. Love, respects 
and obedience are its consequences. A child will 
soon learn what it can have and do, and what it 
cannot ; and it will soon know that it cannot ask 
again for what has been on due consideration 
refused. The excellence of society has its root 
in infancy, and that excellence is confided to the 
care of mothers. Its seeds are planted in the 
cradle. 

PHILOSOPHY AND EELIGION. 

Philosophy depends on argument ; religion, on 
credulity : the one rests on the uniform experience 
of things ; the other, on their violation. Philoso- 
phy does not parley with the apprehensions of the 
timid; it does not press into its service denuncia- 
tions of eternal vengeance ; its professors are not 
supplied by revenues extorted from the prime nec- 
essaries of the people ; it requires no statutes 
villanously foisted into the legal code, to protect 
its tenets from disquisition, for truth and freedom, 
not falsehood and tyranny, are its aim. 

Love of truth never raised a persecution. Per- 
secution springs from the ambitious desire to 
govern the opinions of others, and thus convert 



82 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

them to their interested -uses. And a religions 
ambition is by far the worst, the most rancorous, 
the most hateful and unreasonable specimen of its 
kind that ever infested the world ; it is a direct 
violation of the rights of conscience, an atrocious 
and infamous invasion of the rights of man. A 
man wishes to compel me to think as he does, in 
order that I may subserve his purpose, not regard- 
ing my right to express my opinions being the 
same as he has to express his own ; his opinions 
must be established, mine not dared to be uttered. 



LIFE A JOUKNEY. 

Young persons think that they can see for 
themselves, and that they need not to be told 
what others have seen. But let us reduce this to 
common sense. Suppose a person to be under the 
necessity of going from the place in which he has 
lived, and which is familiar to him, to a far dis- 
tant place. Let it be supposed that the road he 
must travel is crossed by many roads, and that he 
is frequently to find himself at points where sev- 
eral roads are seen, either one of which, so far as 
he can discern, may be the right one. Will it be 
of use to him to have been told, before he departs, 
which of these many roads to take ? Will it help 
him onward to his destination, when he is bewil- 
dered and unable to decide for himself, to find 
some one who can assure him of the right course ? 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 83 

Life is a journej^ Every step we take in it, 
brings ns to something new, something unex- 
pected, and perhaps entirely different from that 
which was looked for and expected. Those who 
have gone through it before us, have left us their 
instructions in what manner it is to be under- 
taken and accomplished. They tell us of their 
own troubles and difficulties; — they warn us 
how to avoid the like in our own journey. 
Which is wisest, to listen to them, and weigh 
the worth of their warning, or to push on heed- 
lessly, and take the consequences? 

THE GBEAT PUEPOSE OF SOCIAL LIFE. 

There are laws prescribed to the human family, 
as there certainly are to other parts of animated 
being ; and in attempting to show man's relation 
to the material world, and his duty to himself, in 
rendering obedience to laws as they are disclosed 
ill nature, we, of course, anticipate social duty to 
some extent. All those qualities which enable an 
individual to comprehend life as a whole, and to 
obtain for himself the greatest good throughout 
its duration, enable him also to perform social 
duty. The social condition of the people of this 
country might be placed, it would seem, on a 
foundation better adapted to promote human hap- 
piness, than it is, if it were rightly understood. 
Labor and action, to useful ends, whether with 



84 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

the head or the hands, or both, is alike honorable 
in all classes, and constitutes the most enduring 
pleasure which is known in this life. 

Every person belongs to a neighborhood which 
is both local and social. Even those who have re- 
moved into new countries, and who dwell in 
solitary abodes, do not lose the sentiment of neigh- 
borhood. The nearest person to them is a neigh- 
bor, though separated by long distance ; and 
when this sentiment cannot be preserved in fact, 
it may be in thought, and by that means it usu- 
ally is so. Perhaps the last impressions that 
depart from the mind of one who has wandered 
into far distant regions, are those made in his 
early days, in his native home. In general, as 
every one lives in a neighborhood more or less 
dense, he can promote his own happiness, and that 
of those around him, by observing a becoming 
moral conduct. He has a right to enjoy life, and 
to use all things which he has to that end ; but 
he has not a right to any employment which neces- 
sarily disturbs that of others. Peace, tranquil- 
lity, and security within one's walls, is the main 
purpose of life. No one has a right to interfere in 
these thiDgs. The moral duties of neighborhood 
extend to all matters which minister to the com- 
mon comfort, convenience, and security. 

Every person, in general, is a member of some 
sort of society or association. These are intended 
for a useful purpose. Every one who is such a 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 85 

member has some duties to perform. He owes 
some proper part of his time, some proper contri- 
butions to the common object, and has an interest 
in the prosperity of the design. These institutions 
do some good, and some of them eminent good, in 
helping on the great purpose of social life, which 
is general improvement. Of this nature are pub- 
lic charities, lyceums, debating societies, libraries, 
reading-rooms, agricultural societies, and those 
for suppressing intemperance and immorality. 
No well-disposed citizen can conscientiously ab- 
stain from giving his aid and support to such 
objects. It is each one's duty to try to leave the 
world a little better than he found it. No one 
can say that these are matters which do not con- 
cern him. Suppose every one should say so, and 
had said so, from time immemorial, society would 
still be made up of barbarians. Every good that 
is done in any community affects, directly or indi- 
rectly, every member of it. The law of example, 
of imitation, of doing as others do, has a most 
pervading and astonishing influence. Every com- 
munity is like a full vessel of water ; no one drop 
in it can be moved without affecting every other 
drop. 

NATUEE AND REASON. 

These are the only true teachers, and in propor- 
tion as we obey them we discover the folly of neg- 
lecting those things which concern human life. 



86 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and involving ourselves in difficulties about ques- 
tions that are but mere notions. Fancies beyond 
the reach of the understanding, and which have 
yet been made the object of belief — these have 
been the source of all the disputes, errors, and 
superstitions that have prevailed in the world. 
Such notional mysteries cannot be made subser- 
vient to the right uses of humanity. 



PURPOSES OF LIFE. 

We believe that human life rightly understood 
and rightly used is a beneficent gift, and that it 
can be so understood and used. It is irreconcila- 
ble to reason that man comes into this world only 
to suffer and mourn ; it is from his own ignorance, 
folly, or error that he does so, whatever is said to 
the contrary. He is capable of informing himself; 
the means of doing this are within his power. If 
he were truly informed, he would not have to 
weep over his follies and errors. It is not pre- 
tended that every one can escape at once, from a 
benighted condition, and break into the region of 
reason and good sense. But it is most clear from 
what is well known to have happened in the 
world, that each generation may improve upon 
the preceding one, and that each individual in 
every successive period of time, maj^ better know 
the true path, from perceiving how others have 
gone before him. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 87 

There can be no miracle in this. It will, at 
best, be a slow progress, and the wisdom arrived 
at in one age must command the respect of suc- 
ceeding ones, and receive from them the meliora- 
tion which they can contribute. We understand 
nothing of what is called the perfectibility of 
human nature ; but we understand this, that if 
human nature can be made to know wherein its 
greatest good consists, it may be presumed that 
this good will be sought and obtained. Man was 
formed on this principle, and he acts on this prin- 
ciple, although he is seen so frequently to make 
the most deplorable and distressing mistakes. If 
it be not admitted that mankind will always strive 
to obtain whatsoever seems to them good, and 
strive to avoid whatsoever seems to them evil, then 
of course their moral teaching is in vain. If this 
principle be admitted, the sole inquiry is, what is 
good and what is evil. 

PUNISHMENT. 

Several benevolent and enlightened authors 
have endeavored to explain the use of penal laws, 
and to correct the ideas which formerly prevailed 
concerning public justice. Punishment is no 
longer considered, except by the ignorant and san- 
guinary, as vengeance from the injured, or expia- 
tion from the guilty. We now distinctly under- 
stand that the greatest possible happiness of the 



88 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

whole society must be the ultimate object of all 
just legislation ; that the partial evil of punish- 
ment is consequently to be tolerated by the wise 
and humane legislator, only so far as it is proved 
necessary for the general good. When a crime 
has been committed, it cannot be undone by all 
the art or all the power of man ; by vengeance 
the most sanguinary, or remorse the most painful. 

The past is irrevocable ; all that remains is to 
provide for the future. It would be absurd, after 
an offence has already been committed, to increase 
the sum of misery in the world by inflicting pain 
upon the offender, unless that pain were afterwards 
to be productive of good to society, either by pre- 
venting the criminal from repeating his offence or 
by deterring others from similar enormities. With 
this double view of restraining individuals, by the 
recollection of past sufferings, from future crimes, 
and of teaching others by public example, to 
expect and fear certain evils as the necessary 
consequences of certain actions hurtful to society, 
all wise laws are framed and all just punishments 
inflicted. It is only by the conviction that certain 
punishments are essential to the general security 
and happiness, that a person of humanity can or 
ought to fortify his mind against the natural feel- 
ings of compassion. 

These feelings are the most painful and the 
most difficult to resist, when, as it sometimes un- 
avoidably happens, public justice requires the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 89 

total sacrifice of the happiness, liberty, and per- 
haps the life, of a fellow-creature, whose ignorance 
precluded him from virtue, and whose neglected 
or depraved education prepared him, by inevitable 
degrees, for vice and all its miseries. How ex- 
quisitely painful must be the feelings of a humane 
judge, in pronouncing sentence upon such an un- 
fortunate being ! But the law permits of no 
refined metaphysical disquisitions. It would be 
vain to plead the necessitarian's doctrine of an un- 
avoidable connection between the past and the 
future, in all human actions, or perhaps it would 
be more proper to say, that the doctrine of neces- 
sity obtains here, as elsewhere ; for the same 
necessity compels the punishment that compels 
the crime. 

EIGHT DOCTRINE. 

No man should be delicate about asking for 
what is properly due him. If he neglects doing 
so, he is deficient in the spirit of independence 
which he should observe in all his actions. Rights, 
if not granted, should be demanded. The selfish 
world is little inclined to give one his own, unless 
he has the manliness to claim it. 

LEARNING A TRADE. 

There are many people who dislike the name of 
mechanic, and who would, rather than put their 
children to an honest trade, tug hard at their busi- 



90 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

ness and live sparingly, for the purpose of giving 
them a college education. They think meanly of 
him who wears a leather apron and is not dressed 
in the latest fashion. This we believe is the rea- 
son why there are so many pettifoggers and vaga- 
bonds in the world. Many a son has been sent to 
college with the expectation of his parents highly 
excited, but like the fable of the mountain, he 
produced only a mouse. We think highly of our 
colleges and literary institutions, and rejoice to 
see them prosper, but we are more pleased to see 
an individual's mind turned in a right current. 
There are hundreds of lawyers who would have 
made better mechanics and have obtained a more 
comfortable livelihood. And we have no doubt 
that there are many mechanics who would stand 
high at the bar, had they been blessed with a lib- 
eral education. But if a child have talents they 
will not remain hid, and no matter what his trade 
or profession is, they will sooner or later burst 
forth. There are many distinguished individuals 
in the literary world who were bred to mechanical 
trades. Many of the editors of our best-con- 
ducted journals were mechanics, and do credit to 
the station they occupy. And our mechanics too, 
generally speaking, are the most industrious part 
of the community. They are almost always busily 
employed. But it is apt to be otherwise with pro- 
fessional men. They are often idle, lazy. It is 
an effort for them to bend their minds to a diffi- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 91 

cult pursuit. They are well informed, because 
they spend much of their time in reading : but 
this is an unprofitable business unless we have 
some definite object in view. 

In these remarks we wish it not to be under- 
stood that we think lightly of professional men 
generally, for we do not. We wish to address 
ourselves particularly to those parents who are 
hesitating what occupations to give their children. 
Are they ingenious, fond of mechanical pursuits? 
Give them a trade. Do they love to study, and 
cannot give their attention to anything else ? 
Send them to college. Let your children choose 
themselves what trade or profession they will fol- 
low, and what they select will generally prove 
the most advantageous in the end. But never 
think a trade too humble for your son to work at, 
nor a profession too important for him to acquire. 
Let every parent pursue this course with his chil- 
dren, and we are confident there would be less 
unhappiness and misery in the world. You can 
never force a trade or profession upon a child ; it 
must be natural to him. A disregard of a child's 
inclination in this respect, has often proved his 
ruin, or at least unfitted him for the duties of life. 

HOME CONVERSATION. 

Children hunger perpetually for new ideas, and 
the most pleasant way of reception is by the voice 
and ear, not by the eye and the printed page. 



92 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

The one mode is natural, the other artificial. 
Who would not rather listen than read? We not 
unfrequently pass by in the papers a full report 
of a lecture, and tlien go and pay our money to 
hear the selfsame words uttered. An audience 
will listen closely from the beginning to the end 
of an address, which not one in twenty of those 
present would read with the same attention. This 
is emphatically true of children. They will learn 
with pleasure from the lips of parents Vv'hat they 
deem it drudgery to study in the books ; and even 
if they have the misfortune to be deprived of the 
educational advantages which they desire, they 
cannot fail to grow up intelligent if they enjoy in 
childhood and youth the privilege of listening 
daily to the conversation of intelligent people. 
Let parents, then, talk much and talk well at 
home. A father who is habitually silent in his 
own house, may be, in many respects, a wise man, 
but he is not wise in his silence. 

We sometimes see parents, who are the life of 
every company which they enter, dull, silent, un- 
interesting at home among their children. If 
they have not mental activity and mental stores 
sufficient for both, let them first provide for their 
own household. It is better to instruct children 
and make chem happy at home, than it is to charm 
strangers or amuse friends. A silent house is a 
dull place for young people, a place from which 
they will escape if they can. The youth who 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 93 

does not love home is in danger. Make home, 
then, a cheerful and pleasant spot. Light it up 
with clieerful, instructive conversation. Father, 
mother, talk your best at home. 

IMPKOVEMENT OF MANKIND. 

To attempt to improve mankind on any other 
principle than by a close, accurate, and unde- 
viating attention to facts, is as absurd and un- 
availing as to expect that man, immersed in 
ignorance, and surrounded by every vicious 
temptation, shall be better, wiser, and happier 
than when trained to be intelligent and active, 
amid circumstances only which would perpetually 
unite his interest, his duty, and his feelings. The 
state of the world will never be materially im- 
proved until knowledge shall be more generally 
diffused, and the multitude are taught to act 
from a just sense of their own interest, rather than 
from passion and prejudice. Hitherto, mankind 
have scarcely come to the investigation of the 
condition of their being, with half of their reason- 
ing powers ; the residue have been absorbed by a 
legitimatized superstition, begotten in youth on 
their ignorance, matured by precept and example, 
and confirmed by surrounding bigotry. 

The ideas of men are acquired, and these ideas 
are enlarged, corrected, and strengthened by intel- 
ligent intercourse ; they can advance only by 



94 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

degrees — can attain to no state of knowledge but 
by a progression more or less slow. After many 
defective attempts, they are enabled to distin- 
guish, by comparison, that which is well or ill of 
every kind ; so that what is called an art, is but 
the result of reason and experience reduced to a 
method. Whatever savors of religious supersti- 
tion, either in the arts or in speculative science, 
can only subserve the purpose of their restric- 
tion, and impede their course and their progress. 
The reason why the sciences have not advanced 
more is, that scholars have been afraid to depart 
from the ideas entertained by the schools, lest 
they should sacrifice their prospects, or draw down 
upon them the ire of old-fashioned professors ; 
and if a man dare advance a sentiment with re- 
spect to morals or religion at variance with doc- 
trine whipped into his grandfather a hundred and 
fifty years ago, it is immediately said: "He is 
wise above what is written, " and he is repre- 
sented as that terrible monster — an infidel. 

While authority, prejudice, and power have per- 
tinaciously contended that it was necessary to 
restrict freedom of inquiry; that there might be 
too much boldness of opinion, and too much lib- 
erty of intellectual enterprise — the strong neces- 
sities and genuine interests of mankind have 
slowly but steadily urged them onward to an in- 
definite perception of their rights, and a corre- 
sponding assertion of claims to the natural exer- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 95 

cise of their privileges. It is much to be lamented 
that too many people even yet conceive that there 
are some opinions which ought not to be tolerated, 
as they imagine that the free expression of them 
would tend to disorganize society, by subverting 
what they believe to be the foundation of virtue. 
How can any danger possibly arise from the unre- 
strained expression of any opinion whatever, 
where reason and truth are left free to combat 
them ? It is time the world had done with such 
groundless apprehensions : they have been sources 
of infinite mischief in all ages and in every coun- 
try. Such people appear to breathe tlie very 
spirit of despotism, and act as if they wish to 
communicate it. It is impossible not to infer^ 
from their apprehensions, that as men increase in 
knowledge they must see reason to disapprove 
the systems established. How can that mind be 
constituted which contemplates the progress of 
human knowledge as matter of regret or fear? 
The wider the diffusion of knowledge, the better 
the people are informed, the more they under- 
stand — the more likely they are to see and com- 
prehend what is for their good, and the means by 
which that good is to be attained ; the more likely 
they are to abstain from such means as would be 
prejudicial in their operation, and calculated 
rather for the prevention than the attainment of 
that good. 



96 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 



THIS WORLD. 

We have often said that we thought it a waste 
of time and talent to anticipate our destiny beyond 
the grave, and to make preparations for an exist- 
ence of which we know nothing, and for which, 
therefore, we cannot prepare. Yet it is an excel- 
lent thing to look before us, and to be provident, 
if we will not look too far. He who takes 
thought for the present moment only, is hardly 
entitled to the character of a rational, reflecting 
being. 

The concerns of eternity have swallowed up 
much time and money, and the great concerns of 
time have been often neglected. There is one im- 
portant subject, whose investigation might prob- 
ably occupy, with advantage to mankind, the 
thoughts and the talents that are now bestowed 
upon worlds beyond the stars. It is this : — 

The civilized world in modern days, has been 
enriched by very wonderful investigations. Its 
powers of production have increased in an aston- 
ishing rhanner. It has thus acquired the capabil- 
ity of supplying all its wants with much less labor 
than formerly ; and if that capability w^ere alone 
necessary in order to produce happiness and com- 
fort, the modern civilized world would be most 
marvellously happy and comfortable. It is the 
very reverse. Almost in proportion as men have 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 97 

learned to produce easilj^ has the reward of their 
exertions been lessened ; and at the present hour, 
machines to save labor are found to cause starva- 
tion to the laborer;, for the markets are glutted, 
and employment fails. Now, instead of studying 
what men tell us are oracles delivered to our 
forefathers some thousand j^ears ago by spirits of 
the air, and instead of imagining what may happen 
to us after sensation appears extinct — instead, we 
say, of these supernatural speculations, were it 
not better that we examine and solve, if we can, 
the following question : 

Is there any remedy for the frightful evils of 
national abundance? 



A FUTURE LIFE. 

The great majority of mankind think that a 
belief in future existence is absolutely necessary 
to present happiness. We believe the doctrine to 
be a mistake. Time a thousand years hence is 
no more to us now, than time a thousand years 
past. As no event could have harmed us when 
we existed not, so no event can possibly harm us 
when we are no more. By anticipating and calcu- 
lating too much on future felicity, and dreading, 
or at least fearing, future misery, man often loses 
sight of present enjoyments and neglects present 
duties. When men shall discover that nothing 
can be known beyond this life, and that there is 



98 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

no rational ground for any such belief, they will 
begin to think more of improving the condition 
of the human species. Their whole thoughts wMll 
then be turned upon what man has done, and 
what he can still do, for the benefit of man. As 
they will be delivered from all fear of invisible 
voluntary agents, that may do them harm, so they 
will no longer look up to such agents for help, 
but they will study more their own powers and 
the powers and properties of Nature. They will 
discover how much time and labor are spent en- 
tirely uselessly, and worse than uselessly — per- 
niciously ; that so far from improving the condi- 
tion of man, such labors only tend to destroy his 
own peace, and render him an enemy to his fellow- 
man. 

THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 

From the cradle to the grave of man, woman 
exercises an all-pervading and unintermitted in- 
fluence upon his character and destiny. She calls 
forth and directs his earliest knowledge. All 
that is good in him, all that is true, is owing to 
her watchful and tireless nurture of his instincts. 
In the helplessness of infancy woman is to him a 
Providence, awakening in him those feelings, 
which afterwards rise and expand to philanthropy 
and virtue. She is his earliest conception of per- 
fect goodness. Through the whole of his mortal 
existence, a mother's love is to him a bright and 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 99 

visible sjnnbol of absolute excellence, — pure, un- 
selfish, self-sacrificing, unchanging, unquenchable; 
it goes out with him in all the alternations of life, 

— in sorrow and in joy, in sickness and health, 

— rejoicing and sorrowing with him and for him 
and for him alone ; clinging to him with a closer 
grasp when all have deserted him, and because all 
have deserted him, and even in disgrace and in- 
famy not forsaking him, — love stronger than 
pain, than death and the grave. 

The dreams of the j^oung man are of para- 
dise; a garden heaven-environed, fanned by wings 
of angels, in which ever bloom flowers of celestial 
fragrance, in whose walks he hears the soft voices 
of unseen spirits. Yet the garden is without 
beauty, the voices utter no music unless there be 
an Eve to listen with him, and to wander with 
him among the groves of the garden. In this 
period of the poetry of his existence, woman, 
either for good or evil, is nearly all in all, the 
cynosure of his thoughts and feelings. When he 
descends into the prose regions of the business 
and matter-of-fact of life, he still finds himself 
under a moral necessity of taking woman as his 
companion and aid. He finds the walks of busi- 
ness empty, the crowded mart a desert, unless 
around their precincts hover visions of beloved 
forms at home, which light up the desert and the 
solitude with smiles. In every period of his life 
it has been true, that : — 



100 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

' ' The world was sad, the garden was a wild, 
And man, the hermit, sighed, till woman smiled." 

Undoubtedly, the dreams of the youth, and the 
calculations of the man, are often destined to 
woful and disastrous disappointment. The poe- 
try, when committed to paper, too often comes 
out without rhyme or reason, intolerable blank 
verse, or miserable, halting doggerel. The prose, 
too, is unreadable, full of uncouth idioms and 
false syntax. Eve, after all, often proves herself 
a mere mortal, and that not of the highest cast. 
The angel is sometimes a spirit of another sort 
than one of light. The companion is occasionally 
one, with whom a quiet man would be loth to 
associate forever. But still, in every circumstance, 
woman affects, with good or bad influences, the 
condition and character of man through the whole 
of life. 

It is a truth, universally assumed and admitted, 
that there is no test of the advancement of civili- 
zation so sure and infallible, as that afforded by 
the position of woman in society, the rank as- 
signed to her in the scale of social adjustment. 
It is a just and true test ; for civilization, in its 
ultimate analysis, is the overthrow of the law of 
force. Wherever the law of force, the right of 
the strongest, prevails, woman must be, by the 
physical laws of nature, inferior and degraded. 
As this law recedes, woman will be exalted, and 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 101 

the degree of her elevation will be the index of 
the degree in which the law of force has yielded 
to the law of right. The influence of woman is 
a purely moral influence. Her physical constitu- 
tion and intellectual temperament debar her from 
any other. Her place in society may, therefore, 
be taken as a fair indication of the relative pre- 
dominance of right and force. 



OLD AGE. 

When the summer of youth is slowly wasting 
away into the nightfall of age, and the shadows 
of the past year grow deeper and deeper, and life 
wears to its close, it is pleasant to look back 
through the vista of time, upon the sorrows and 
felicities of our earlier years. If we have a home 
to shelter, and hearts to rejoice with us, and 
friends have been gathered together around our 
fireside, then the rough places of our wayfaring 
will have been worn and smoothed away in the 
twilight of life, while the sunny spots we have 
passed through will grow brighter and more beau- 
tiful. Happy, indeed, are they whose intercourse 
with the world has not changed the tone of holier 
feeling, or broken those musical chords of the 
heart, whose vibrations are so melodious, so tender 
and touching in the evening of age. 



102 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 



LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 

Two great movements at the present time stand 
arrayed in irreconcilable hostility. The one tends 
onward to the elevation of humanity in the age 
of universal wisdom ; the other, backward to 
primeval darkness, superstition, moral corruption, 
despotism, and the eternal stagnation of thought. 
From the irrepressible energies of the human in- 
tellect, still struggling fd»r additional truth, and 
the continual struggle of the indwelling moral 
sense against the wrongs and miseries of human 
life, necessarily arises the party of progress, pro- 
testing against despotism, falsehood and inhu- 
manity, while introducing new science, new phi- 
losophy and new forms of social organization for 
human welfare. 

The lower forms of human development, the 
animalized men whose perverted intellect cherishes 
self-evident falsehoods, and whose moral sense is 
not disturbed by wrongs and outrages, nor by the 
sight of constant suffering and degradation, who 
cannot realize the genuine nature of man, or 
believe in the possibility of any higher condition 
of society than that which has existed, are neces- 
sarily the antagonists of every movement which 
seeks to realize a far higher condition of knowl- 
edge and happiness. The result of the struggle 
between these opposing powers cannot be doubt- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 103 

ful, although it may be tedious ; for notwithstanding 
that in ancient times all power was in the hands of 
the despotic party, freedom has now sufficient foot- 
ing on the earth, and a sufficiently secure lodgement 
in the bosoms of mankind to insure her triumph. 

But the most forniidable difficulty in the way 
of such a triumph arises from the fact that the 
legions of despotism are fully aware of the doom 
which must overtake them whenever the human 
mind is left free in the acquisition of knowledge, 
fully aware that their power is based upon delu- 
sion and superstitious impressions, and that their 
system can be perpetuated only by perverting the 
intellect of the young. Here, then, is the struggle. 
Shall the young be free in their education, or 
shall they be made the victims of the power which 
their parents and teachers may tyrannically use ? 
In this form is the question now brought before 
us by that terrible power which sits enthroned at 
Rome, which claims the allegiance of the entire 
world, which demands a spiritual, legal, and mili- 
tary supremacy over all forms of government, 
whether democratic or monarchical, and which, in 
short, aspires to and demands the dominion of the 
world. A power, which, with all its Jesuitical 
craft and pliant adaptation to the humors of man- 
kind, has not even thought it necessary to veil its 
real purpose, or to deny its despotic pretensions. 
Its bishops and priests and editors make no secret 
of the claims of Romanism to overrule all forms 



104 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

of government, and to suppress by military power 
all other forms of religion, whenever that power 
can be obtained. 

The leading Roman Catholic editors of France, 
England, and the United States, under the sanc- 
tion of the Roman Catholic bishops, boldly avow 
that religious toleration is utterly incompatible 
with Romanism, and that their church is of neces- 
sity intolerant, that Roman Catholics who make 
any profession of liberality or toleration, are doing 
violence to the doctrines of their church and utter- 
ing what they should know to be untrue. And 
while Romanists loudly demand toleration and 
freedom for the oppressed Roman Catholics of 
Ireland, they as loudly insist upon maintaining 
religious and political despotism wherever Roman- 
ism controls the military power. Whoever is 
faithful to Rome and assists by bayonet and ball 
in crushing Italian liberty, and keeping down the 
democracy of Europe by means of prisons, chains 
and gibbets, is honored by the pope and the entire 
Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, 
even though his life be notoriously black with all 
the infamy which belongs to a penitentiary con- 
vict. To enslave mankind by means of cunning 
priestcraft, by the halter, the lash, and the dun- 
geon, the spy and the assassin, is the aim of Rome, 
and in accomplishing her purpose she welcomes 
the co-operation of every despot, knave, and mili- 
tary robber. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 105 

To assert that any thorough Romanist can be a 
Republican, a friend of toleration, a friend of hu- 
man progress in thought and liberty, or can be 
anything else than a steady supporter of political 
and mental despotism, is to contradict the univer- 
sal history of that Church, the declarations of its 
high authorities, and the admissions which its very 
apologists and advocates have made, under the 
strongest temptation to conceal and deny its true 
character. 

It is therefore pre-eminently the duty of those 
who belong to the advance-guard of human prog- 
ress, who are struggling for reforms which society 
is not yet prepared to grant, and for a philosophy 
which the present century can scarcely adopt, to 
arouse themselves against the most formidable 
enemy that reform has ever had to contend with. 
Wherever Romanism extends its jurisdiction, there 
is an end to reform, to liberty, and to liberal phi- 
losophy, which Romanism knows to be incompat- 
ible with its own existence. The best of modern 
literature is proscribed by Rome, and the practice 
of phrenology and other sciences prohibited by 
the same authority. 

Let us not forget, in the midst of our liberty 
and security, that a power which has come down 
as a black cloud from the dark ages, still the 
same infallible, unchangeable body, — still the 
open ally and the principal supporter of despot- 
ism, — still the same adversary of science as in the 



106 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

days of Galileo, is here in our midst, with a disci- 
pline, unity, fanaticism, and ignorance in its mass- 
es; cunniDg in its leaders, and wealth and foreign 
support, possessed by no other organization, and 
so conscious of its strength, as to throw off its dis- 
guise and confess its despotic aims. 



PEIDE. 

There is a kind of pride which is often mistaken 
for self-respect. We hear of honorable and of 
laudable pride. We take pride to be that self- 
esteem in which a man holds himself. It may be 
founded in his estimation of the qualities of his 
mind, in his attainments, in his possessions, in his 
strength, his beauty, his parentage, or descent. 
It may also be founded in a consciousness of 
virtue, and of having faithfully done one's duty in 
all the relations of life. It seems to arise neces- 
sarily, from comparing one's self with other per- 
sons. If this be the right meaning of pride, it is 
very clear that it is not alwaj^s a sentiment w^hich 
entitles one to respect himself. A man would be 
thought to be very unwise, who should openly de- 
clare that he valued himself, in comparison with 
other men, on account of his wealth, his beauty, 
or his family connection ; equally unwise if he 
should declare his opinion of himself to be, that 
he was superior to other men in the gift of natural 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 107 

intellect, in the cultivation of it, or in the practice 
of the various virtues. 

The common sense of mankind, founded on nat- 
ural reason, does not approve of that self-gratula- 
tion which rests upon the accident of birth, of in- 
heritance, nor even upon the acquisition of fortune 
by one's own industry ; nor does it approve of 
that feeling, when founded upon qualities which 
belong to the mind, nor even in the practice of 
the virtues, unless w^hen manifested in a certain 
manner. 

There must be, in the very nature of things, 
some persons in every communitj^, large or small, 
w^ho are superior to others in these sources of self- 
esteem. In every city, town, and village in this 
nation, there are some persons who are in posses- 
sion of some of these causes of self-esteem in some 
comparative degree, and other persons who have 
the fewest or the least of them. Those who so 
use their advantages as to entitle themselves to 
the esteem of others, and w^ho are acknowledged 
to be respectable for that use, may well be entitled 
to respect themselves from such causes. Those 
who use them in such a manner as to announce 
the feeling of superiority over others, and habitu- 
ally to offend the watchful feeling of self-love, are 
very properly called the proud. It is believed 
that these views conform to natural law, and to 
the necessary constitution of human society. 



108 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

LIVING AND DYING. 

There are some persons who see, in the order of 
succession inherent in animal and vegetable crea- 
tion, that the system is defective, and does not 
satisfy '' the longings of the immortal soul." 
They complain of the principle of decay ; of the 
yellow leaf of autumn ; of the dreariness of win- 
ter. They complain more of the uncertainty, and 
sometimes sudden termination, of human life ; 
that the young and the serviceable die ; that 
death, at any age, is a mournful and afflictive 
event. They say that this world is " a vale of 
tears," that '' man is born to trouble, as the sparks 
fly upward," that our " days are few, and full of 
trouble," and that there is no happiness but in 
heaven, or in another state of existence. This is 
not what Nature says. This is the language of 
ignorant, erring, ungrateful man. There is no 
one thing which declares the wisdom and the good- 
ness of Nature more convincingly, than the pro- 
vision for the commencement, the duration, and 
the end of life. Whatsoever there may seem to be 
of evil in it, is either of man's own creating, or it 
is because he does not or will not exercise his 
reason. If it were left to man to regulate this 
matter, what would he please to do? Would he 
make everything that comes into being, as vege- 
table, continue in it, and for how long a time ? 
What would become of the succession of blossoms 



OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 109 

and fruits? Would he make his own race immor- 
tal on the earth? What would he do with the 
pleasures and duties of youth, manhood, decline 
and old age ? Would he continue all in life, who 
come into it, indefinitely ? How would or could 
any being come into life, if the laws of Nature 
were deranged? If it were possible to suppose 
that all to whom life is given, were to remain on 
earth and continue to multiply, what would life 
come to be ? 

It better becomes complaining mortals to be 
assured that Nature acts wiser than they. It is 
their proper duty to exercise the beneficent gift of 
reason to learn that it is so ; that death proceeds 
no less from the goodness of Nature, than birth ; 
that man abuses or perverts the beautiful order of 
succession, as he does everything else, when igno- 
rant and disobedient. If he used his faculties in 
accordance with reason, he would know that from 
this order arise all the relations which call forth 
the highest moral perfection to which he can 
aspire, all incitements to virtue, all the prompt- 
ings to self-satisfying actions, and all the delights 
of an intelligent, philosophic mind. 

INTELLECTUAL PLEASURES. 

Placed as mankind are in a world filled with 
beautiful and interesting objects, and possessing 
faculties which find their exercise and enjoyment 



110 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

in the contemplation of these objects, it becomes 
them to investigate their nature, in other words, 
to pursue knowledge. Surely it is impossible for 
a reasonable man to avoid this conclusion, that 
by cultivating the powers with which he is en- 
dowed, and employing them on objects within his 
reach, he is not only consulting his own happi- 
ness, but rendering himself useful to his fellow- 
men. 

The variety and intensity of intellectual pleas- 
ures must in a great degree depend on the number 
of truths with which the individual may be 
acquainted, for by such means only, combined 
with reflection, the consequence of knowledge, 
can the powers of judgment be improved. Now, 
all men, whose organization is not unusually im- 
perfect, are capable of acquiring knowledge to an 
extent of which, from our present inconsistent 
system of education, we can form but an inade- 
quate idea. What is so well calculated to enlarge 
and fill the mind with admiration as astronomy? 
And j'Ct, some of the truths in this science, once 
considered so abstruse and comprehended only by 
a Newton, are now within the reach of every 
capacity. When the minds of the great mass of 
mankind are no longer permitted to lie waste, but 
shall be properly cultivated, and under the genial 
influence of equitable institutions, a taste for in- 
tellectual enjoyments will become as general as 
the desire for bodily nutriment ; and although the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. Ill 

want of intelligence may be little felt by an igno- 
rant individual, yet it is far more grievous than 
want of wealth. The man who is born blind, 
knows not his misery ; so the man who is trained 
up in ignorance, thinks himself equal with him of 
superior intelligence ; but there is as much differ- 
ence in this respect between man and man, as 
between man and animal. 

It is on this account that it is of so much im- 
portance in the education of youth to encourage 
their instinctive taste for the beauty and sublimity 
of Nature ; Avhile it opens to the young a source 
of pure and permanent enjoyment, it has conse- 
quences on the character and happiness of their 
coming lives which they are unable to foresee. 
It is to provide them, amid all the agitations and 
trials of society, with a gentle, unreproaching 
friend whose voice is ever in alliance with good- 
ness and virtue, and which, when once understood, 
is able both to soothe misfortune and to reclaim 
from folly. It is to identify them with the happi- 
ness of that nature to which they belong, and to 
give them an interest in every species of being 
which surrounds them i and amid the hours of 
curiosity and delight, to awaken those latent feel- 
ings of benevolence and sympathy from which all 
the moral and intellectual greatness of man finally 
arises ; it is a companion to him which no misfor- 
tune can repress, no clime destroy, no enemy alien- 
ate, no despotism enslave. It is at home a friend, 



112 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in soci- 
ety an ornament ; it chastens vice, it guides virtue, 
and it gives at once a grace and an ornament to 
genius. 

Let a man but have a taste for books and the 
means of gratifying it, and he can hardly fail of 
being a happy man, unless indeed we place in his 
liands a most perverse selection. We place him 
in contact with the best society in every period of 
history, with the wisest, wittiest, the tenderest, 
the bravest, and the purest characters that have 
adorned humanity. We make him an inhabitant 
of all nations, a contemporary of all ages. It is 
hardly possible but the character should take a 
higher and better tone from the constant habit of 
associating in thought with a class of thinkers who, 
to say the least, are above the average of humanity. 
It is morally impossible but that the manners 
should take a tinge of good breeding and civiliza- 
tion from having constantly before one's eyes, the 
way in which the best bred and best informed 
men have talked and conducted themselves in 
their intercourse with each other. There is a 
gentle but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit 
of reading, well directed, over the whole tenor of 
a man's character and conduct, which is not the 
less effectual because it is really the last thing he 
dreams of. It civilizes the conduct of men, and 
suffers them not to remain barbarous. A well- 
conducted system of education can hardly fail, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 113 

also, of making an industrious man. Where the 
' mind has been trained to activity, the body neces- 
sarily follows its incitements, while habits of 
sottishness will be deserted for more congenial in- 
tellectual exercises. 

EVILS. 

There are many evils which deform and dis- 
grace society, and which do their full part in 
making this a world of evil. There is squalid, 
miserable poverty ; there is disgusting, lamentable 
vice ; there is horrible crime and public execution. 
All these things, it is said, are inevitable ; they 
spring from the very nature of man, and from the 
laws which compel him to dwell in social connec- 
tion. It is questionable whether there must be 
poverty ; surely, there need not be vice and crime. 
The whole number of Quakers in the United 
States is many thousands. When did any one see 
a Quaker begging in the streets ; or an intoxicated 
Quaker ; or any one of this class of citizens, at the 
criminal bar ? Are not these people engaged in 
the common affairs of the world; are not they 
merchants, mechanics, artificers, mariners, and 
otherwise employed in the ordinarj^ business of 
life ? They, like the rest of us, are subject to the 
temptations and perversions incident to our state 
of being. Here, then, is a clear demonstration, 
that even without the aid of civil power, but by 
the mere force of moral influence, there is a class 



114 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

of men, in the midst of society, who do escape 
disgraceful poverty, and who are free from vice 
and crime. 

DUTY AND HAPPINESS. 

The difficulty with religionists is this: — 
They try to make mankind believe that duty 
calls one way, while all the dictates of reason and 
common sense seem to teach their interest^ that is, 
their happiness^ requires them to take a different 
course ; hence a conflict ensues between duty and 
happiness, and this is the reason why so many 
pursue the latter, and so few the former course. 

It is time, therefore, high time, indeed, that 
these teachers should be brought to see that any 
course that does not lead to happiness, — happi- 
ness that is seen, — happiness that can be realized 
for a certainty, is not, and cannot be a duty; but 
if it does lead to happiness, then it is for one's 
own interest or profit to pursue it. 

Let all our would-be reformers take this course. 
Say nothing about duty, or even moral, much less 
religious obligation ; say nothing about God 
or his law, about which men have disputed so 
long, to no purpose. But let them point out the 
natural and philosophical consequences of all 
moral actions as far as they are known, or their 
consequences can be traced ; and let them frame 
all their laws agreeably to these rules, and then 
leave mankind to think what they please, speak 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 115 

and write what they think, and do what they 
choose, so long as they transgress no law ; but if 
they do, then let them abide the consequences of 
that, as tliey niust of all other of their actions. 
No man will strive knowingly to promote his own 
misery ; and therefore if he does it, it must be ow- 
ing to ignorance, or some ungoverned passion, or 
both. 

UNIYEESAL BENEVOLENCE. 

Humanity has lessons full of salutary instruc- 
tion, and calculated to enforce civilization upon 
the intellectual powers of man. The spiritualiza- 
tion of human existence has been an injury to 
man ; it has taught him to spurn at matter, to 
contemn its power and ridicule its essence ; 
whereas, on the contrary, sound philosophy, un- 
folding as it does the connection between man 
and Nature, is fitted to produce in the mind senti- 
ments of respect and tranquillity ; respect for the 
aggregate of existence to which he belongs, and 
tranquillity at the idea of an eternal interest (as a 
race) in this indestructible mass. The successive 
changes through which he is destined to pass, and 
the impossibility of relinquishing his connection 
with Nature, should inspire him with feelings of 
universal sympathy, and with sentiments of uni- 
versal benevolence. Human reason has an impor- 
tant duty to perform in the institutions which it 
establishes ; for these institutions will affect in 



116 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

succession all the portions of matter destined to 
pass through an organized condition. 

It is, no doubt, difficult to convince the human 
understanding of this physical or universal con- 
nection, or to make man see his true interest in 
this respect. It is, nevertheless, a solemn and 
philosophic truth that our sensations are at this 
moment suffering under the cruel lash of ancient 
institutions ; that the whole animal world are 
reciprocating with each other a system of exten- 
sive and perpetual wretchedness, resulting princi- 
pally from that contempt which has been thrown 
upon the capacity of material substance, and our 
ignorance of an important and an indestructible 
connection with the great body of Nature. If 
man had a comprehensive view of the successive 
changes of his existence, and a correct idea of the 
nature of sensation continually resulting from the 
renovation of organic forms, sympathy or univer- 
sal benevolence would become irresistibly impres- 
sive upon his moral powers and form the basis of 
his subsequent conduct. 

This principle should also be extended to the 
whole universal world, so as to exclude acts of 
cruelty and annihilate every species of injustice. 
The child who is permitted in early life to run a 
pin through a fly, is already half prepared to run 
a dagger through the heart of his fellow-creature. 
It is the duty of parents and the business of in- 
struction, to correct the ferocious errors of former 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 117 

ages, and inspire society with sentiments of sym- 
pathy and universal goodness. But to do this 
with effect, political institutions the world over 
must be changed and placed upon the broad basis 
of universal liberty and universal justice. This 
Avould be a work of time, but it is as certain in 
the ultimate issue of things, as the progress of the 
earth around the sun, or the general revolution 
of the planetary system. The individual who 
withholds his intellectual contribution in this re- 
spect, is either misinformed, or a traitor in the 
great cause of human existence. 

TRUTH — TEACHINGS OF NATURE. 

The discovery and the development of Truth as 
it really exists in the system of Nature, is of the 
highest importance to the true interests of man- 
kind. But how to present this truth to the view 
of the mind in a manner calculated to attract its 
attention, is difficult for us to say. For although 
the uncorrupted faculties of man cannot be op- 
posed to the attractive charms of truth, or the 
brilliant beauties of her native appearance, yet so 
numerous are the causes, and so powerful their 
operation, which serve to mislead the mind and 
produce injurious impressions upon it, that per- 
spicuity and regularity of thought are essentially 
deranged, and the clearness of scientific deduc- 
tions are swallowed up in the gulf of error and 



118 OCCASIOJ^AL THOUGHTS. 

deception. This process, prejudicial to our men- 
tal operations, commences in the early part of our 
existence, and proceeds with a regularity of mis- 
chievous consequences, to the period when man 
assumes the dignity of intellectual independence ; 
and fortunate indeed is that individual who arrives 
to this elevated condition of mental existence. 
The energy of thought, when applied to the dis- 
covery of truth, is naturally calculated to sweep 
aT^ay the rubbish of error, and cut up those deep- 
rooted prejudices which have so long retarded the 
useful improvement of our species. The grand 
object of philosophic philanthropists should be, to 
extend the sphere of mental energ}^, to enlarge 
the circle of its influence, and to oppose the perse- 
vering activity of mind to the fallen rancor of 
superstition and the destroying fury of fanaticism. 
Religious enthusiasm, bigotry, and superstition, 
conjoined with the strong arm of political despot- 
ism, have rendered men, in the past ages of the 
world, the degraded instruments of their own 
pernicious and destructive purposes ; it is here we 
must seek for the source of many human misfor- 
tunes, and the perpetuation of those prejudices by 
which the body and mind are both enslaved. It 
is true that the natural imbecility and imperfec- 
tion of our faculties, and the extensive nature 
and variety of those moral and physical combina- 
tions from which science is to be deduced, evince 
the strong probability that man may frequently be 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS- 119 

erroneous in the conclusions which he draws from 
certain premises, because the force of his faculties 
is not adequate to a full and complete investiga- 
tion of the compounded and diversified relations 
of our existence; but these natural obstacles to 
the clear deductions of science, are neither of a 
discourao-inof nor an insurmo an table nature. 

There is no system either of education, politics, 
or religion, which ought to be excepted from the 
severest scrutiny of the human mind, or the 
minutest examination which the human faculties 
can bestow upon it ; yet habit and custom of long 
duration have so strongly attached man to his 
errors, that he reluctantly relinquishes those tenets 
which serve only to disturb his peace and destroy 
his happiness; while the privileged impostors of 
the world, or those who feast upon the continua- 
tion of error and prejudice, unite their strongest 
exertions to persuade man that his most impor- 
tant interests, in time and eternity, depend upon 
the preservation of ancient and unnatural estab- 
lishments, which in fact, are as destructive to hu- 
man felicity as they are derogatory to the divine 
purity of supreme intelligence. 

That happiness is to be preferred to misery; 
pleasure, to pain ; virtue, to vice ; truth, to false- 
hood ; science, to ignorance ; order, to confusion ; 
and universal good, to universal evil, — are positions 
that no rational being can possibly controvert. 
They are positions to which mankind, in all ages 



120 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and countries, must yield assent. They are posi- 
tions, the truth of which is never denied, the es- 
sence of which is never controverted ; it is the form 
or application only which has been the cause of so- 
cial contention, and not the reality or excellence 
of the axioms themselves. 

The universality of the principle of sensation, 
generates universal capacity of enjoying pleasure, 
and suffering pain. This circumstance modifies the 
character of human actions, and renders it neces- 
sary that every man should regard every other man 
with an eye of strict justice, with a tender and deli- 
cate sensibility, with a constant reference to the 
preservation of his feelings, and the extension of his 
happiness ; in a word, that the exercise of eternal 
justice should be constantly reciprocated by all the 
individuals of the same species. If we assume to 
ourselves the pretended right of injuring the sensa- 
tions, the moral sentiments, or general happiness 
of our neighbors, they have, undoubtedly, an 
equal right to commit the same violence upon us ; 
this would go to the destruction of all right, to 
the total subversion of all justice ; it would reduce 
society instantly to a state of warfare, and intro- 
duce the reign of terror and misery. 

It is a contradiction of terms to assert that any 
man has a right to do wrong; the exercise of 
such a pretended right is the absolute destruction 
of all right, and the first human being who com- 
mits this violation has already prepared for him- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 121 

self a hell of retaliation, the justice of which his 
own mind can never deny. It is, therefore, incon- 
sistent with the trnth to say that there is no such 
thing as a general standard of moral excellence ; 
this standard has a real existence in the construc- 
tion of human nature ; it is ascertained and regu- 
lated by the rule of reciprocal justice. 

PLEASURES. 

Sensible pleasures, — or the gratification of the 
senses, are to be avoided when they tend to in- 
jure the corporal and mental faculties. They are 
to be avoided when they tend to the injury of our 
neiglibors, or are calculated to produce in our- 
selves, habits of stratagem and deceit. Thus far 
all systems of morality and rational conduct are 
agreed. But the preachers of self-denial add to 
these limitations a prohibition to the frequent in- 
dulgence of sensible pleasures, from the danger of 
suffering ourselves to set too great a value on 
them, and to postpone the best and most elevated, 
to the meanest. Having assumed this new princi- 
ple of limitation, there is no visionary and repul- 
sive extreme to which these sectaries have not in 
some instances proceeded. They have regarded 
all sensible pleasures as a deduction from the pur- 
ity and dignity of the mind, and they have not 
abstained from invective against intellectual pleas- 
ure itself. They have taught me:i to court 



122 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

persecution and calumny. They have delighted 
to plant thorns in the path of human life. They 
have represented sorrow, anguish, and mortifica- 
tion, as the ornaments and honor of our existence. 
Now it is a mistake, we think, to suppose that 
sensible pleasures and intellectual ones are by 
any means incompatible. He that would have 
great energy, cannot perhaps do better than to 
busy himself in various directions, and to culti- 
vate every part of his nature. Man is a little 
world, as it were, within himself, and every por- 
tion of that world is entitled to attention. A 
wise man wishes to have a sound body, as well as 
a sound mind. He would wish to be a man at 
all points. For this purpose he would exercise 
and strengthen the muscles of every part of his 
frame. He would prepare his body to endure 
hardship and vicissitude. He would exercise his 
digestive powers. He would cultivate the deli- 
cacy of the organs of taste. He would not 
neglect the proper and right use and enjoyment 
of all the faculties and functions of his being. 
There is a harmony and a sympathy through 
every part of the human machine. A vigorous 
and animated tone of body contributes largely 
to the advantage of the intellect, and an im- 
proved state of intellect heightens and refines 
our sensible pleasures. A modern metaphy- 
sician, of great reputation in the religious world, 
has maintained life to be an unnatural state, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 123 

and death the genuine condition of man. If 
this thesis is to be admitted, it seems to follow 
that true wisdom would direct us to that pro- 
ceeding which tended most to conform with life, 
. and to maintain in activity every portion of 
our frame and every branch of our nature. It is 
thus that we shall most effectually counterwork 
an enemy who is ever in wait for us. 

Another argument in favor of a certain degree 
of attention to be paid to, and cultivation to be 
bestowed upon, sensible pleasures is, that the 
sensations of our animal frame make an important 
part of the materials of our knowledge. It is 
from sense that we must derive those images 
which so eminently elucidate every department of 
science. One of the great objects, both of natural 
science and morality, is to judge of our sensible 
impressions. The man who has not yielded a due 
attention to them would in vain attempt to form 
an enlightened judgment on the question we 
are here attempting to discuss. There is a vast 
variety of topics that he would be disqualified to 
treat of or to estimate. 

Excessive drinking usually leads men into de- 
bauched company and unprofitable conversation. 
It inevitably impairs, in a greater or less degree, 
the intellectual faculties, and probably always 
shortens the life of the person addicted to it, a 
circumstance particularly to be regretted when 
that life is eminently a useful one. Gaming, be- 



124 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

sides the bad company to which it inures a man, ~- 
of persons who can scarcely be said to redeem 
their guilt in this respect by many virtues, — ^ ac- 
customs him to some of the worst habits of mind, 
induces him to seek and to rejoice in the misfort- 
unes of others. 



LIBERTY — REASON — JUSTICE — SOCIETY. 

Every man has some idea of the advantages of 
liberty; but, for the most part, he has been in- 
structed to believe that men would tear each 
other to pieces, if they had not priests to direct 
their consciences, and lords to consult for their 
subsistence, and kings to steer them in safety 
through the inexplicable dangers of the political 
ocean. But, whether they be misled by these or 
other prejudices, whatever be the fancied terror 
that induces them quietly to submit to have their 
hands bound behind them, and the scourge vi- 
brated over their heads, all these are questions of 
reason. Truth may be presented to them in such 
irresistible evidence, perhaps by such just degrees 
familiarized to their apprehension, as ultimately 
to conquer the most obstinate prepossession. 

The Armenians in the East are as universally 
distinguished among the nations with whom they 
reside, as the Jews in Europe ; but the Armenians 
are as much noted for probity as the Jews for 
thrift. What resemblance is there between the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 125 

ancient and the modern Greek, between the old 
Romans and the present inhabitants of Italy, 
between the Gauls and the French? Diodorus 
Siculus describes the Gauls as particularly given 
to taciturnity, and Aristotle affirms that they are 
the only warlike nation who are negligent of 
women. 

Can there be an}^ state of mankind that renders 
them incapable of the exercise of reason? Can 
there be a period in which it is necessary to hold 
the human species in a condition of pupilage? 
If there be, it seems but reasonable that their 
superintendents and guardians, as in the case of 
infants of another sort, should provide the means 
of their subsistence without calling upon them 
for the exertion of manual industry. Wherever 
men are competent to look the first duties of 
humanity in the face, and to provide for their 
defence against the invasions of hunger and the 
inclemencies of the sky, there they will, beyond 
all doubt, be found equally capable of every other 
exertion that may be necessary to their security 
and welfare. Present to them a constitution that 
shall put them into a simple and intelligible way 
of directing their owm affairs, adjudging their con- 
tests among themselves, and cherishing in their 
bosoms a manly sense of dignity, equality, and in- 
dependence, and you need not doubt that prosper- 
ity and virtue will be the result. We will sup- 
pose that it is right for one man to possess a 



126 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

greater portion of property than another, either 
as the fruit of his industry or the inheritance of 
his ancestors. Justice obliges him to regard this 
property as a trust, and calls upon him maturely 
to consider in what manner it may best be em- 
ployed for the increase of liberty, virtue, and 
knowledge. He has no right to dispose of a 
shilling of it at the will of his caprice merely. So 
far from being entitled to well-earned applause 
for having employed some scanty pittance in the 
service of philanthropy, he is in the eyes of justice 
a delinquent if he withhold anj^ portion from that 
service. In the same manner as his property, he 
should hold his person as a trust in behalf of 
mankind. He is bound to employ his talents, his 
understanding, his strength, and his time, for the 
production of the greatest quantity of general 
good. Such are the declarations of justice ; so 
great is the extent of duty. 

Society is nothing more than an aggregation of 
individuals. Its claims and its duties must be 
the aggregate of their claims and duties — the one 
no more precarious and arbitrary than the other. 
What has society a right to require from a man ? 
The question is already answered : everything 
that it is his duty to do. Anything more ? Cer- 
tainly not. Can they change eternal truth, or 
subvert the nature of man ? Can they make it 
his duty to be intemperate, to maltreat or assassin- 
ate his neighbor ? Again : what is it that society is 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 127 

bound to do for its members ? Everything that 
can contribute to their welfare. But the nature 
of their welfare is defined by the nature of mind. 
That will most contribute to it which enlarges 
the understanding, supplies incitements to virtue, 
fills us with a generous consciousness of our own 
independence, and carefully removes whatever can 
impede our exertions. 



IMAGINATION. 

This word — imagination — is derived from the 
Latin word imago^ an image, which signifies the 
resemblance of some original thing. There can 
be no proper action of this faculty but as an ade- 
quate resemblance of some palpable object, as 
there can be jio image or resemblance where there 
is no original ; but its qualities may be varied by 
new combinations. Pythagoras, who discovered 
the property of the hypothenuse, did not create 
it ; Faustus, who discovered or invented printing, 
did not create the properties of the press; and 
Lycurgus, who established the constitution of 
Sparta, created no new faculty in man or Nature. 

The inhabitant of this world, in the develop- 
ment of his energy to augment good and diminish 
evil on earth, can receive no aid from the people 
of Saturn, or the number of the stars ; and hence, 
it would be better for man, admonished by this 
lesson, to study himself on the ample experience 



128 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

of sensation as the all-sufficient science of self and 
Nature. All qualities or powers must have sub- 
stance or extension to exist in; and thought or 
mind is the substance of the brain in action, 
though the understanding of man may be incapa- 
ble of discovering by what subtle process matter 
modifies itself into thought. 

The word ''ghost" is a phantasm, involving 
a contradiction, and means a dead body perform- 
ing the functions of life. The word " apparition " 
implies the contradiction that one and the same 
body can be or exist in two places at the same 
time, as when a sick man in New York appears to 
a friend in Boston, to predict the death of either 
of the parties ; and though the' prediction may 
happen to come true, the falsehood of the vision 
or phantasm would still be the same. The truth 
of the prediction is nothing more than an extraor- 
dinary concurrence of circumstances which exist 
in the chapter of accidents or chances. 

Almost every man is in the habit of thinking 
of his absent friends, in their relative circum- 
stances of health, riches, happiness, sickness, 
adversity, and death. In that part of the globe 
called Europe, about two hundred millions of 
people are living in intellectual intercourse, by 
means of the press, thinking of the fate of absent 
friends in every possible combination of circum- 
stances. So long as their conjectures are false 
and disappointed, they are passed over silently ; 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 129 

but should one come true in the course of twenty- 
years, the papers of the civilized world proclaim 
the occurrence as a miracle, when it would be more 
miraculous if such wonderful occurrence did not 
take place, considering the number of dreams and 
the length of time. 

Let us look at this matter a little more closely. 
Every hundredth person, we will suppose, is en- 
gaged in thinking of the fate of an absent friend; 
here, then, we have two millions of people, three 
hundred and sixty-five times in the year, for the 
course of twenty years, thinking, dreaming, and 
seeing visions. One receives a letter from a sick 
friend, and thinks he is dead ; another dreams he 
died on such a night; a third saw an apparition, 
that is, an idea came across his mind that his 
friend died at a certain instant of time, which 
proved to be true. This occurrence, however ex- 
traordinary, is not at all unaccountable or miracu- 
lous, because, taking into the estimate the number 
of two millions that think every day in the year 
upon the same subject, it would not be above ten 
or twenty chances to one, that a series of events 
should occur at the same instant in the course of 
twenty years, as that a person should think of the 
death of his friend at the very day or hour when 
he died, particularly if in ill health, or exposed to 
danger; or that a concurrence of events should 
take place, such as a vision or a freak of fancy, 
or a noise at the door by the cat, which awoke 



130 OCCASIONAL, THOUGHTS. 

the dreamer about the time when his friend 
expired. 

This plain and simple calculation of chances to 
account for predictions will convince, we should 
suppose, any intelligent -and reflecting man, that 
any prediction of events which cannot connect the 
means with its end is nothin^^ more than a conjec- 
ture at hazard, which the table of chances may 
verify without causing wonder or stupefaction in 
rational or well-disciplined understandings. 

The word "witch" is another phantasm when 
used with the import of vulgar apprehensions, 
which means an ugly old woman in possession of 
supernatural power; that is, having power above 
her nature, or having what she cannot have, — a 
palpable contradiction. This observation will 
apply to the whole vocabulary of phantasms, such 
as magic, prophecy, inspiration, incantation, etc., 
etc., which are all words of contradictory import, 
signifying ends without means, or power beyond 
possibility. 

The fancy is an arbitrary creator of notions, or 
thoughts without object, useful to amuse in poetry 
or instruct in fables. Its power is augmented by 
reading books of fiction, and its evil influence in 
disposing the mind to superstition and credulitj'' 
might be guarded against by an avowal of its 
fictitious nature by those authors who use it to 
personify all modes of existence. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 131 



LITERATURE — EDUCATION — JUSTICE. 

There are three principal causes by which the 
human mind is advanced towards a state of per- 
fection ; literature, or the diffusion of knowledge 
through the medium of discussion, written or 
oral ; education, or a system for the early impres- 
sion of right principles upon the hitherto unpreju- 
diced mind ; and political justice, or the adoption 
of any principle of morality and truth into the 
practice of a community. 

Literature has reconciled the whole thinking 
world respecting the great principles of the sj^s- 
tem of the universe, and extirpated on this sub- 
ject the dreams of romance and the dogmas of 
superstition. Literature has unfolded the nature 
of the human mind, and Locke and others have 
established certain maxims respecting man, as 
Newton has done respecting matter, that are gen- 
erallj^ admitted as unquestionable. Discussion 
has ascertained with tolerable perspicuity the pref- 
erence of liberty over slavery. Local prejudice 
had introduced innumerable privileges and prohi- 
bitions upon the subject of trade ; speculation is 
beginning to ascertain that freedom is more favor- 
able to her prosperity. 

Where must the preceptor himself have been 
educated, who shall elevate his pupil above all the 
errors of mankind ? If the world be full of in- 
trigue and rivalship and selfishness, he will not be 



132 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

wholly disinterested. If falsehood be with man- 
kind at large reduced to a system, recommended 
by the prudent, commanded by the magistrate, 
enforced by moralists and practised under a thou- 
sand forms, the individual will not always have 
the simplicity to be sincere, or the courage to be 
true. If prejudice has usurped the seat of knowl- 
edge, if law and religion and metaphysics and 
government be surrounded with mystery and arti- 
fice, he will not know the truth, and therefore 
cannot teach it ; he will not possess the criterion, 
and therefore cannot furnish it to others. 

Superstition, an immoderate fear of shame, and 
a false calculation of interest are errors that have 
been always attended with the most extensive con- 
sequences. How incredible, at the present day, 
do the effects of superstition exhibited in the 
Middle Ages, the horrors of excommunication and 
interdict, and the humiliation of the greatest mon- 
archs at the feet of the pope, appear ! What can 
be more contrary to our customs and modes than 
that dread of disgrace which formerly induced the 
Brahmin widows of Hindostan to destroy them- 
selves upon the funeral pile of their husbands ? 
What more glaringly immoral than the mistaken 
idea which leads multitudes in commercial coun- 
tries to regard fraud, falsehood, and circumven- 
tion as the truest policy? But, however powerful 
these errors may be, the empire of truth, if once 
established, would be far greater. A system of 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 183 

government that should lend no sanction to ideas 
of fanaticism and hypocrisy would soon accustom 
its subjects to think justly upon topics of moral 
worth and importance. A state that should ab- 
stain from imposing contradictory and impracti- 
cable oaths, and thus perpetually stimulating its 
members to concealment and perjury, would soon 
become distinguished by plain dealing and vera- 
city. A country in which places of dignity and 
confidence should cease to be at the disposal of 
faction, favor, and interest, would not long be the 
residence of servility and deceit. 

If every man could with perfect facility obtain 
the necessaries of life, and, obtaining them, feel 
no uneasy craving after its superfluities, tempta- 
tion would lose its power. Private interest would 
visibly accord with public good, and civil society 
become all that poetry has feigned of the golden 
age. 

WOEDS — IDEAS. 

Language, in all its dialects, has been gradually 
formed by the various wants and whims of human 
beings. That it required no supernatural inspira- 
tion must be evident from the more recondite dis- 
coveries and complicated inventions of human in- 
genuity. The function of speech, that is, its 
nature and end, is to communicate the operations 
of one mind to the intelligence of another. Cer- 
tain words are established as the representative 



134 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

signs of things, and when uttered by the mouth 
or exhibited in writing or printing, we receive 
them as the exposition of things or their corres- 
ponding thoughts. 

All Nature is comprehended in the term physics, 
which means the laws or course of matter and 
power, — that is, substance and its qualities as 
exhibited in their phenomena and verified by ex- 
perience. The word metaphysics has been used 
and abused as a vain and futile distinction applied 
to qualities alone, as to heat in the body of the 
sun, or thought in the body of man. The quality 
of heat is as substantial a phenomenon, presented 
to the sense of feeling, as the body of the sun to the 
sense of sight ; they are both physical essences, 
and stand in no need of the useless distinction 
of the word metaphysics. In the same manner, 
the quality of thought in the human brain is as 
much a physical action as the circulation of the 
blood, and exhibits its phenomena with the same 
palpable sense and intelligence, to be verified by 
the test of experience, and therefore the word 
metaphysics is a misapplied and useless distinc- 
tion in real knowledge, and should be confined to 
those impenetrable secrets of Nature which are 
concealed from the human species, because they 
would avail nothing, if understood or known, 
towards producing the general harmony of exist- 
ence ; that is, the augmentation of good, and the 
diminution of evil in the present state of being. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS, 135 

The mythology of gods, goddesses, celestial sen- 
ates, demons, etc., drawn from human imagina- 
tion, is vague hypothesis, characterized by a set of 
words without meaning, and sounds without sense, 
which can have no import in human language, as 
they represent no phenomena, no objects, and 
no relations amenable to the test of experience. 
The words virtue and vice, or good and evil, are 
perpetually interchanging their limits, and vary- 
ing their identities in the incessant mutability of 
circumstances. Falsehood, or lying, is a great 
vice; but the suppression of truth may sometimes 
be required by necessity. 

Secrecy is often the basis of confidence, and a 
great virtue. War is no doubt an evil ; but if the 
advancement of right, and diminution of wrong in 
the mundane system require war in the defence 
of social and political life, it becomes a good, as 
peace would become an evil, if adopted in such a 
case. 

The first rule to make language represent reali- 
ties instead of phantoms may be exemplified by 
considering the oratorical, rhetorical, and eloquent 
absurdities of metaphysicians, from the great pro- 
totype Plato, down to the modern Locke. What 
volumes of erudite contention in words, simply, 
have been produced and disciplined by logic, both 
scholastic and natural, so called by Locke, to 
prove that we have ideas in the mind without 
things, their prototypes ! that is, copies without 



136 OCCASIONALr THOUGHTS. 

originals — downright contradictions, calculated 
to deprave human reason, and produce a state of 
universal confusion. The mind has no power to 
create original objects or ideas ; and even their re- 
mote and projected relations, which appear as sim- 
ple acts of thought, are all suggested by the 
objects themselves in their capacities, and there- 
fore copied, and not created by the fiat of the 
mind ; and the most complicated systems of moral 
institutions are nothing but the development of 
human energy, detected and discovered by genius 
in the suggested and projected relations of the 
capacity or the constitution of man. 

The other essential rule of the art of reasoning 
is, to consider in full evidence all the parts or 
subjects of propositions. The moral science re- 
sembles the mathematical science ; no part in a 
demonstration can be fully understood unless we 
embrace the whole ; and as the elements and sys- 
tem of the first have never yet been fully under- 
stood by mankind, all its words and terms are but 
dialects of local education, customs, and knowl- 
edge ; and whoever attempts to pass beyond these 
must speak to his countrymen an unknown lan- 
guage, and can be intelligible only to travellers 
who have no country, or philosophers who have no 
prejudice. When we take any proposition into 
contemplation, we should meet it in the calm tem- 
perament with which we view a mathematical 
problem. No man feels a bias or emotion upon 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 137 

such inquiry, and therefore the question is solved 
with irrefutable accuracy. 



MAKE THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. 

An important lesson to learn, and the earlier in 
life it is learned the better, is to make the best of 
everything. As the old adage says, "There is no 
use in crying over spilt milk." Misfortunes that 
have already happened, cannot be prevented, and, 
therefore, the wise man, instead of wasting his 
time in regrets, will set himself to work to recover 
his losses. The mistakes and follies of the past 
may teach us to be more cautious for the future ; 
but they should never be allowed to paralyze our 
energies, or surrender us to weak repinings. A 
millionaire of this city (Boston) tells the story 
that at one period, early in his career, he had got 
almost to the verge of bankruptcy ; " But, " says 
he, "I ploughed a deep keel, and kept my own 
counsel, " and by these means he soon recovered. 
Had this man given way to despair ; had he sat 
down to bewail his apparently impending ruin, he 
might now have been old and poor, instead of a 
capitalist in a leading position. He adds that his 
characteristic was that through life, in all circum- 
stances, he did the best that he could, whatever 
that was, consuming no time in useless regrets 
over bad speculations. 

The rule holds good, not only in mercantile 



138 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

affairs, but in the whole conduct of life. The 
man who is born to indifferent circumstances will 
never rise, if, abandoning himself to envy of those 
more blessed by fortune, he goes about sullenly 
complaining, instead of endeavoring to use to the 
best of his ability what few advantages he has. 
The patriot, deploring the decline of public and 
private morals, will never succeed in reforming 
the commonwealth if he stickles for visionary or 
impracticable measures, rejecting those more mod- 
erate ones which are really attainable. The 
friend will soon have no intimates at all if, mak- 
ing no allowance for the infirmities of human nat- 
ure, he judges too harshly the conduct of his 
acquaintances. Many a matrimonial separation 
might be avoided, if husband and wife, instead of 
taking offence at each other at slight provocation, 
would dwell rather on the good traits their partner 
displays. There are not a few statesmen now liv- 
ing in retirement, who might have still gratified 
their ambition by serving the public, if they had 
understood, amid the intrigues and disappoint- 
ments of public life, how to make the best of 
everything. We never see a man bewailing his 
ill fortune without something of contempt for his 
weakness. No individual or nation ever rose to 
eminence in any department, which gave itself up 
to this childish behavior. Greatness can only be 
achieved by being superior to misfortunes, and by 
returning again and again to the assault with re- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 139 

newed energy. And this it is which is truly 
making the best of everything. 



INTELLECTUAL IMPKOYEMENT. 

The citizens of this republic enjoy a greater 
degree of freedom, apparently, than any other peo- 
ple on the globe ; and yet, the fundamental basis 
of our Constitution, that " All men are created 
equal," is every day practically violated. As it 
respects what are termed the common people, we 
are theoretically free, but practically we are slaves, 

— slaves to unequal laws, — slaves consequently to 
the rich, by whose influence and for whose benefit, 
those laws are framed. We are slaves to their 
will and pleasure, and harnessed to their car of 
party. The only hope of deliverance rests on the 
march of knowledge, that gives light to the under- 
standing, calls the moral energies of man into 
action, elevates him to his proper dignity, and 
will eventually nerve his arm with power to break 
the fetters from his limbs, that will enable him to 
stand forth in the full growth of human intellect 

— a Fkeeman. 

We may depend upon it, if ever mankind shall 
enjoy the full extent of political freedom and 
equality, they must be acquired by individual 
exertion, to form such characters as will qualify 
us to contend for, and make us worthy to inherit 
the blessing, as the only means of wresting it 



140 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

from the clutches of aspiring demagogues. If tlie 
poor shall ever be emancipated from the oppres- 
sion of the rich, and peace, plenty, and content- 
ment bless the community, — if bickering and 
strife be ever banished, and pure social happiness 
prevail, the great and important work must be 
accomplished by the same great means, Intellec- 
tual Improvement. 



ACTIONS — DUTIES — VIRTUES. 

The bad practice of duelling was originally in- 
vented by barbarians for the gratification of 
revenge. It was probably at that time thought 
a very happy project for reconciling the odious- 
ness of malignity with the gallantry of courage. 
But in this light it is now generally given up. 
Men of the best understanding who at this day 
lend it their sanction are unwillingly induced to 
do so, and engage in single combat merely that 
their reputation may sustain no slander. 

Which of these two actions is the truest test of 
courage ; the engaging in a practice which our 
judgment disapproves, because we cannot submit 
to the consequences of following that judgment, 
or the doing what we believe to be right, and 
cheerfully encountering all the consequences that 
may be annexed to the practice of virtue ? With 
what patience and satisfaction can a man of virtue 
think of cutting off the life of a fellow-mortal, or 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 141 

of putting an abrupt close to all the generous 
projects he may himself conceive for the benefit 
of others, merely because he has not firmness 
enough to awe impertinence and falsehood into 
silence ? 

The worst actions, the most contrary to abstract 
justice and utility have no doubt been done from 
conscientious motives. Ravillac, Clement, Dam- 
iens, had their minds deeply penetrated with anx- 
iety for the eternal welfare of mankind ; for this 
object they sacrificed their ease, and cheerfully 
exposed themselves to torture and death. It was 
benevolence, probably — as taught by the Chris- 
tian religion of the time — that contributed to 
light the fires of Smithfield, and point the daggers 
of Saint Bartholomew. The inventors of the gun- 
powder plot in England were, in general, men 
remarkable for the sanctity of their lives and the 
severity of their manners. And so, likewise, the 
murderer of President Lincoln may have thought, 
from the influences by which he was surrounded, 
that he was right and acting conscientiously in 
becoming an assassin. Thus it is that an action, 
though done wdth the best intention in the world, 
may have nothing in it of the nature of virtue. 

John Calvin, we will suppose, was clearly and 
conscientiously persuaded that he ought to burn 
Michael Servetus. Ought he to have burned him 
or not ? If he burned him, he did an action detes- 
table in its own nature ; if he refrained, he acted 



142 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

in opposition to the best judgment of his own 
understanding as to a point of moral obligation. 
It is absurd, however, to say, that it was in any 
sense his duty to burn him. Therefore, we con- 
clude that the most essential part of virtue con- 
sists in the incessantly seeking to inform ourselves 
more accurately upon the subject of utility and 
right. Whoever is greatly misinformed respect- 
ing this subject, is indebted for his error to a 
defect in his philanthropy and zeal. 

Since absolute virtue may be out of the power 
of a human being, it becomes us in the meantime 
to lay the greatest stress upon a virtuous disposi- 
tion, which is not attended with the same ambig- 
uity. A virtuous disposition is of the utmost 
consequence, since it will in the majority of in- 
stances be productive of virtuous actions; since 
it tends, in exact proportion to the quantity of 
virtue, to increase our discernment and improve 
our understanding; and since, if it were but uni- 
versally propagated, it would immediately lead to 
the great end of virtuous actions, the purest and 
most exquisite happiness of intelligent beings. 

From these simple principles we may deduce 
the moral equality of mankind. We are partakers 
of a common nature, and the same causes that 
contribute to the benefit of one, contribute to the 
benefit of another. Our senses and faculties are 
of the same denomination. Our pleasures and 
pains will therefore be the same. We are all of 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 143 

US endowed with reason, able to compare, to 
judge, and to infer. The improvement, therefore, 
which is to be desii^d for the one is to be desired 
for the other. We shall be provident for our- 
selves, and useful to each other, in proportion as 
we rise above the atmosphere of prejudice. The 
same independence, the same freedom from any 
such restraint as should prevent us from giving 
the reins to our own understanding, or from utter- 
ing upon all occasions whatever we think to be 
true, will conduce to the improvement of all. 

The thing really to be desired, is the removing, 
as much as possible, arbitrary distinctions, and 
leaving to talents and virtue the field of exertion 
unimpaired. We should endeavor to afford to all, 
the same opportunities and the same encourage- 
ment, and to render justice the common interest 
and choice. Persecution cannot persuade the 
understanding, even when it subdues our resolu- 
tion. It may make us hypocrites, but cannot 
make us converts. The government, therefore, 
which is anxious above all things to imbue its sub- 
jects with integrity and virtue will be the far- 
thest in the world from discouraging them in the 
explicit avowal of their sentiments. It is only by 
giving a free scope to these excursions, that 
science, philosophy, and morals have arrived at 
their present degree of perfection, or are capable 
of going on to that still greater perfection, in com- 
parison with which all that has been already done, 
will perhaps appear inferior and childish. 



144 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 



MOTHERS AND CHILDREN. 

If it be a fact — and we believe it is generally 
conceded — that extraordinary men always have 
extraordinary mothers, or women of uncommon or 
superior minds, then it follows that in order to 
improve mankind, we must improve womankind; 
or perhaps we should say, improve the latter, first. 
Mothers, much more than fathers, mould the dis- 
position and character of their children ; and con- 
sequently, as an intelligent lady lately observed 
at a public meeting, " when mothers are properly 
educated, children will be brought up properly." 
She was exactly right. It is a good, useful, secu- 
lar education that women most need, and not 
religion, — an education that shall teach them a 
knowledge of all those laws of their being on 
which health, life, happiness, prosperity, content- 
ment, usefulness, longevity, in short, everything 
that makes life worth having, necessarily depends. 

What is a belief in the ''Trinitj^" or ^'Unitj^" 
or the "Virgin Mary," or the ''Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles," and all the rest of the dogmas and creeds 
of the churches, both Protestant and Catholic, in 
comparison with the possession of a good, strong, 
vigorous, handsome, healthy constitution, and the 
knowledge how to take care of it? Why, to our 
mind, the former is to the latter as mere dross to 
pure gold ; and yet, in the religious world, the 
"house we live in," or the body, is hardly worth 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 145 

minding, while the " mansions in the sky, " which 
" no eye hath seen " and probably never will see, 
are the only things deserving human attention. 
''So runs the world away," and humanity is 
cheated, fooled, humbugged, and plundered, while 
living, and at death is pointed to the imaginary 
Utopia above the clouds, for the enjoyment of 
that happiness, which, if society was rightly man- 
aged, might be enjoyed here, and the possession of 
which would make our earth a paradise, and hell 
a fable. Will humanity ever enjoy this happi- 
ness ? We hope so, for it is "a consummation 
devoutly to be wished," but it is almost like hop- 
ing against hope to expect it ; for when a man 
arises in society, whose love for humanity super- 
sedes his respect for churches and creeds, the 
majority, who are always religious, become 
alarmed, and making common cause as it were 
against the daring innovator, exclaim, "This 
man is an infidel ; come, let's kill him ! " 

But, though this is a part of our subject, we 
have somewhat disgressed from the leading idea 
with which we started, which was, the improve- 
ment of mothers and children ; two very impor- 
tant branches of humanity, without whom the 
world would come to a standstill. 

Now if it be a fact, as careful observers say it 
is, that by the manners of the children, we may 
judge of the temper of the mother, then of course 
her proper education by improving herself im- 



146 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

proves her offspring; thus making intellect, char- 
acter, and organization to a great degree, if not 
entirely or wholly, hereditary. Washington's 
mother was a superior woman ; so was Jefferson's, 
Franklin's, Bonaparte's, and so were the mothers 
of all the distinguished men who have made their 
mark on their country and the world and after 
generations. And here we are reminded of the 
truthful saying, as we believe, of that great and 
good man, the late Robert Owen, who, while faith- 
fully laboring for more than half a century, and 
at an expense in money of half a million of dol- 
lars, as a social reformer, to benefit the condition 
of the workingmen of England, adopted the follow- 
ing as his motto, rule, and principle of moral and 
social action and reform : " The characters of 
men are formed /or them, and not hy them." We 
have often heard religious people scout this idea as 
very foolish, yet to our mind it is one of the best, 
because truest maxims ever uttered ; and we are 
altogether mistaken if we have not seen it proved 
correct in many instances. How else, we would 
be glad to know, are we to account for the 
wealth, prosperity, fame, leisure, enjoyment of one 
class of people, and the poverty, vice, crime, mis- 
ery, toil, and wretchedness of another and a 
larger class? Do people really desire the former, 
and wish to avoid the latter things ? Undoubtedly. 
Then how comes it about that so many possess 
the latter, and so few the former ? In both cases 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 147 

it is owing to the force of circumstances, and we 
shall be satisfied of this fact in proportion as we 
become acquainted with the individual history of 
people belonging to these two classes. It seems to 
us as clear as the simplest sum in arithmetic that, 
given the social circumstances of a community or 
neighborhood, it is easy to determine their moral 
and intellectual condition. But we need not 
speculate theoretically on this point, for Mr. 
Owen has demonstrated it by the practical logic 
of incontrovertible facts. For a period of nearly 
twenty years he was the governor or manager of 
a laboring population of three thousand, whose 
social circumstances were made easy, pleasant, and 
agreeable, all their wants being satisfied. The 
consequence was there was no poverty, no igno- 
rance, no excessive toil, none of the misery and 
wretchedness of the outside world, experienced in 
his village (New Lanark) ; the inhabitants were 
prosperous, contented, happy, and moral, so moral, 
in fact, that when commissioners of Parliament 
visited that town, among others, to report the 
number of criminals, they reported that in Mr. 
Owen's town there were no criminals. He had 
surrounded his people with such favorable circum- 
stances that they had no inducement to commit 
crime, and hence they led moral lives. Here is 
the secret, and what circumstances have done for 
New Lanark, they will do for other localities ; 
since as the evils of society are all of human in- 



148 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

stead of heavenly origin, a human remedy will 
remove them, and nothing else can. So when the 
doctrine of '' circumstances " is properly under- 
stood and appreciated, it will be seen to be the 
only true panacea for social evils, and that as it 
contemplates the improvement of women as well 
as men, it will also benefit children, and thus all 
three classes will be saved with a reasonable, a 
practical, and a true salvation. It is of no use to 
look to heaven to find a remedy for the ills of this 
life ; because, being of the '' earth, earthy," they 
can only be cured by earthly means. 



AMUSEMENTS ON SUNDAY. 

The fact that public exercises are not counte- 
nanced on Sunday, except those which are strictly 
of a religious nature, leads to a public evil of which 
we would complain, namely, that as a large por- 
tion of our J^oung men do not feel any interest in 
religious exercises, and consider all the time thus 
spent as so much wearisome confinement, they are 
accustomed to neglect them one half the day and 
to devote that time to some hurtful practice, for 
which they are not condemned because the fact 
is hid from observation. 

We are all, probably, well acquainted with the 
fact, that in Puritanical communities, although 
there may be less vice than in other places, there 
is not so much less as there appears to be. An 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 149 

over-strictness in regard to the pleasures of man- 
kind, while it diminishes public vice, increases 
private vice, though perhaps not in exactly the 
same ratio. Hence in the New England States 
there is probably more concealed vice than in, 
France, though probably the sum of public and 
private vices added together is greater in the 
latter country. There is no propensity in the 
human heart, that we are aware of, to indulge 
in vice as such. There is simply a desire for 
pleasure, and this love of pleasure will lead to 
vice or innocent indulgence, just according to the 
nature of the laws and customs of the commu- 
nity. Men will have pleasures and amusements 
of one kind or another, on Sundays as well as on 
week days ; but these need no t be vic ious unless 
the bad customs ol^i^uciel)^ i^ender them such. 

Now there are two opposite kinds of society ^^ 
which vice will be resorted to as an amusement. 
First, it will be resorted to in those communities 
in which all amusements of every kind are con- 
demned, except those which arise from toil and 
the practice of devotion, as they were in the New 
England States under our ancestors, and still are 
in some old villages. Secondly, it will be resorted 
to in those communities in which^vice itself is n ot 
condemned, so long as certain necessary laws for 
the protection of person and property are not 
violated. Such a state of things exists in some 
of the new States in North and South America. 



150 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

The only state of society (if it is possible for 
any so to be) which can be kept free from vice is 
that in which the greatest possible amount of 
innocent amusements is both allowed and en- 
couraged. No particular day of the week must 
be made an exception to this remark, for we must 
apply our remarks to human nature as it is, and 
not as we think it ought to be ; and you cannot 
find an individual, except an enthusiast, or one 
who labors under a clironic state of moral or 
religious excitement, who is willing to spend a 
whole day of the week, that is, a seventh part of 
his life, in doing penance. Hence, if you afford 
men no entertainment on that day, except of a 
kind in which they do not and cannot feel the 
least interest, while you condemn likewise all 
such amusements as they may invent for them- 
selves, you may be just as sure that they will 
indulge themselves in secret hurtful practices, as 
you can be of any fact which you witness with 
your own eyes. 

This remark is not applicable to those, who, on 
account of having formed a taste for reading or 
some other rational amusement, can divert them- 
selves in some one or other of these ways. Per- 
haps a majority of the elder portion of the 
community are so much fatigued w^ith the labors 
of the week, that they are glad to spend the whole 
of the Sabbath literally as a day of rest, and while 
they appear to be deeply engaged in religious de- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 151 

votions, are really relieving a mind and a body 
that are exhausted with the toils of the past week. 
Such people do not need amusement, since to 
them, rest itself is the most agreeable reaction. 

THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

Play is the natural employment of children. 
Systematic training is very prejudicial, because 
they do not understand the meaning nor the use 
of it, and have no liberty in it for mental exercise. 
The child's mind can only think of the child's own 
affairs ; it cannot think of yours. In yours it is 
enslaved ; in its own it is free. Body and mind, 
therefore, are better developed in managing a toy- 
horse, than in striving to fulfil an un childish task ; 
and it is only when both are freely developed to- 
gether, that health can be enjoyed. For the sake 
of the promised manhood of boys, and the prom- 
ised womanhood of girls, therefore, let all who 
can afford to bring up their children in a natural 
and healthy manner be cautious how they accept 
the theories of the precocious philosopher, or 
hasten to make phenomena of their children in 
early life. Remember that hasty growths are 
weakening to plants and animals, and the strong- 
est and the most enduring are always those who 
slowly develop themselves. 

Even the superior strength of man to woman is 
owing to this latter efflorescence ; and it is no 



152 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

recommendation to any boy or girl, that they an- 
ticipate their years, and enact the part of man or 
woman before their time. Why, then, should ed- 
ucation be hastened? Whj^ should it be forced 
upon the infant mind, and why should that help- 
less and inexperienced mind be de]3rived of its 
natural rights of healthy, juvenile liberty, and 
childish excitement and enthusiasm, merely to 
gratify a morbid and unnatural parental desire of 
exhibiting it in a private family circle, as a sur- 
prising phenomenon? We should rather be 
ashamed of such phenomena — rather sorry for 
their misfortune in being phenomena, and check 
the rapidity of a morbid excitement that must 
speedily emerge in physical weakness and nervous 
irritability. 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 

The truth that the body is the only medium by 
which the mind communicates with earth, if not 
actually denied, is strangely overlooked by teach- 
ers generally. What the harp, flute, and organ, 
broken or untuned, are to the musician — the 
body, wdth its wonderful and scrupulously deli- 
cate functions, disabled or disorganized, is to the 
mind and heart. ''A sound body for a sound 
mind, " — here is the secret of a full, s}mimetrical, 
and correct appropriation of a man's physical and 
moral energies. The framework of the massive 
steamboat, must, for strength, be in proportion to 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 163 

the power of the engine, or the working of the 
latter will speedily break down the former. An 
active mind in a feeble body does the same. 

Now if these are truthful and common-sense 
principles, then it follows that the building up 
and waxing mighty of the physical constitutions 
of the coming millions of our nation is an impor- 
tant, and in fact, an indispensable work ; and it is 
a fortunate omen, that the facilities for intellect- 
ual and moral training are multiplying almost 
beyond degree. But without phj^sical education, 
the human constitution will soon be overworked, 
since the facilities for propelling mind will prove 
as fuel to the steam-engine ; they w^ill increase 
action only to cause a speedier and more appall- 
ing ruin to the framework which sustains it. He, 
therefore, who does anything by publishing and 
revealing to families, especially to wives and 
mothers, judicious and healthful knowledge on 
physical education, is helping on the true salva- 
tion of our country and the world. 

The great work must be, to enlighten parents. 
It is the rescue of the coming generations. It is 
the inculcation of the wholesome precepts of wis- 
dom and prudence in regard to the prevailing 
errors respecting diet, dress, exercise, ventilation, 
reading, study, and morals. Society groans under 
a load of suffering inflicted by causes which 
might easily be removed, but which, in conse- 
quence of ignorance, fashion, prejudice, etc., are 



154 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

still permitted to operate. Therefore, we infidels, 
who believe in having good bodies as well as 
minds, can help to secure both, by promoting the 
great work of Physical Education, 



REFORM. 

The world can be refined and improved only 
by the removal of absurd notions, principles, and 
customs, and the adoption of good ones. Hence 
may be perceived the utility and importance of 
the enthusiastic exertions of isolated individuals 
of inventive and discriminative powers in the 
wide fields of reform ; for, by the perseverance and 
determination of a few philosophic philanthropists, 
the moral world may, before many j^ears, become 
sufficiently renovated and improved to render the 
virtuous successful, the honest happy, and the 
wise powerful. 

THOUGHTS FOR THE YOUNG. 

It is a common custom with editors of papers — 
secular as well as religious ones — to give advice 
to the rising generation, for in this particular, the 
press claims to be an instructor not less than the 
pulpit. And as we too have youthful readers, 
perhaps they will give attention to the following 
thoughts of an old friend of theirs, whose reflec- 
tions and experience seem in his estimation to 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 165 

enable him to impart good advice, and who also 
sincerely wishes that their lives may be useful, 
prosperous, and happy. 

How vastly important are the moments of 
youth ! They constitute the best, if not the only 
time for the acquirement of everything that can 
elevate, adorn, and ennoble the human character. 
Yes, this is the fit period of your existence, not 
only for attaining valuable knowledge, and secur- 
ing to yourselves virtue, wisdom, and lasting 
felicity, but now, also, is the season in which 
you must be wary and ever upon your guard lest 
you acquire and become fixed in the foolish habits 
and vicious customs of the society which surround 
3"ou. For, whether you know it or not, it is a sad 
truth, that for one wise and virtuous individual 
that is to be found in the current pursuits of life, 
you will meet with, at least, seven who are either 
foolish or vicious. Therefore, avoid as far as pos- 
sible, all intimacy and conversation with such in- 
dividuals, that thereby you may remain secure 
from the contamination of their follies and vices, 
for let it be remembered, that you were born free 
from vice, and can be trained to virtue. Hence, 
it should be your assiduous duty to avoid the 
former and acquire the latter. 

Then, in order to escape the evil and attain the 
good, strive to gain a taste and preserve a zest for 
thought and reflection, while youth, health, vigor 
and vivacity flow through your frames ; for when 



156 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

youth is passed, the animal spirits begin to droop. 
Fail not then to appreciate your present, which, 
if once lost, becomes irrecoverable. Then deceive 
not yourselves, but remember that if you defer 
the acquisition of valuable knowledge, wise and 
virtuous habits, until mature age, you will labor 
under the double disadvantage of learning slowly 
and forgetting nearly as fast as you learn. Re- 
member that early habits of industry and reflec- 
tion, united with honesty, truthfulness, temper- 
ance, kindness, justice, and all the other useful, 
practical, human virtues which benefit ourselves 
and our fellow-men, will enable jo\i to be and to 
feel much more independent, exalted, and happy, 
than can the mere possession of wealth and the 
ability of moving in the giddy circles of pomp 
and fashion. 

Beyond the necessaries of life, it is not impor- 
tant that the pecuniary means of the habitually 
industrious, reflective, and wise, should be large. 
Money, however, when honestly earned, is a good 
thing, because it can be made useful to ourselves 
and to others ; to ourselves when we are past 
labor, and to others, when it enables us to lend a 
helping hand to the poor and unfortunate. Be 
active, then, in your business, and when you have 
acquired a competence, be prudent in the saving 
and judicious in the disbursement of it. Do not 
be anxious at any time on the score of instruction 
or the right kind of teaching, for you will always 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 157 

have a full and perfect library around you which 
comprises the most valuable of all books — we 
mean the great volume of Nature. Never doubt 
the truth of this statement, nor lose sight of its 
great and paramount importance, but ever be 
assured that the pure study of Nature, of all other 
studies, is the most important, for it will never 
inspire you with fanaticism and an evil spirit, nor 
will it ever mislead you ; but, on the contrarjr, the 
contemplation of Nature must always tend to 
humanize, refine, and exalt your character. 

If you enjoy good health, and possess an ordi- 
nary share of intellectual capability, and begin in 
early life to be studious, thoughtful, and reflective, 
by thirty years of age, each of you may be- 
come like a host in valuable knowledge, men- 
tal power, and moral influence ; and consequently 
will establish yourselves in principles that have 
the immutable rock of truth for their basis. 

It is all important, you see, that you hegin rights 
for human life is a succession of parts — infancy, 
youth, manhood, maturity, decline, old age, and 
death. What a man becomes, depends on educa- 
tion, and other circumstances that surround him 5 
as his infancy is, so will be his youth ; as his youth 
is, so will be his manhood ; as his manhood is, so 
will be his maturity ; as maturity is, so will be de- 
cline; as decline is, so will be old age. Then if 
youth be passed in idleness, ignorance, folly, and 
vice, how can one hold his way in the world, side 



158 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

by side with the intelligent, the worthy, and the 
virtuous? If manhood has been passed in low 
pursuits, in establishing in the heart, evil propen- 
sities, in wasting natural vigor, what awaits one in 
old age, but poverty, pity, and contempt? But if 
j^outh be devoted to the reasonable cultivation of 
the physical and intellectual powers, if knowledge 
of human duty be acquired and rightly used, man- 
hood will be worthy ; maturity, respectable ; de- 
cline, honored ; and old age, venerable. 



THE EIGHT TO EXPRESS OPINIONS. 

One of the most important rights which human 
beings possess, abstractly, and which ought to 
be guaranteed to them by the society of Avhich 
they are members, is, the right to express opin- 
ions, without fear or molestation. That men 
ought to possess this right, not only as a matter 
of abstract justice, but as a matter of political ex- 
pediency, is a proposition which carries its own 
evidence along with it. The right to think freely 
upon all subjects belongs to us naturally, and no 
government can deprive us of it. Now the right 
to think involves the right to express our opin- 
ions ; for if we were to be deprived of the power 
of communicating our ideas to each other, we 
should be unable to benefit society by developing 
truths which we might discover. 

The right to express opinions on all subjects, 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 159 

save religion and politics, is conceded by almost 
all governments to their people. The autocrac}^ 
of Russia, and the paternal despotism of Austria, 
prohibit discussion among the people on political 
affairs, and England and our own country some- 
times punish those who -dare to express opinions 
derogatory to Christianity. The persecution of 
Abner Kneeland for blasphemy, — the statute 
against which unmeaning crime is not even yet re- 
pealed, — proves the correctness of the latter 
statement. A brief examination of the principal 
arguments usually urged in defence of such pros- 
ecutions, may suffice to show their injustice, and 
to place the right of man to the unrestricted ex- 
pression of opinion in a clear light: — 

First, — It is said that if men were permitted 
to publish opinions derogatory to religion, the pub- 
lic would be induced to regard it with contempt. 
To this it may be replied, that religion must be a 
thing in itself contemptible, or the public intellect 
must be very defectively educated, or such an ef- 
fect would never be produced. Every prosecution 
for the undefinable crime of blasphemy, therefore, 
is a tacit acknowledgment that the government 
and the priesthood have not done their duty in 
educating the people; or it is a tacit acknowledg- 
ment that religion is not founded in argument, and 
that it requires the terrors of corporal punishment 
for its support. Hence all such prosecutions are 
the most bitter and galling satires which could be 



160 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

launched against the government, priests, and re- 
ligion. 

Second, — It has been urged that the moral 
sense of the community is outraged by the publi- 
cation of libels on religion, and that it is fitting 
and right that the publishers of such libels should 
be prosecuted. We see no force in this argument, 
because almost everything that a man might say 
of religion, while exercising his right of free in- 
quiry, could be construed by the law and the 
church into a libel. Now it is well known that 
free inquiry has been instrumental in establishing 
science, in reforming jurisprudence, and in effect- 
ing the partial abloition of superstitious absurdi- 
ties. It cannot therefore, do any harm to religion, 
if religion is founded in truth ; and if not, free in- 
quiry will expose its errors, and consequently 
ought to be encouraged. Moreover, the nature of 
belief is involuntary and proportionate to the 
amount and clearness of the evidence presented to 
the mind ; hence it is unjust to punish a man for 
entertaining any opinion. Besides, as the individ- 
ual right to inquire after truth obviously implies 
the right to express without fear the results of 
inquiry ; so it may be argued that those who 
could restrict the free expression of opinion must 
either deny the abstract right of man to inquire 
after truth, or act inconsistently by denying in 
practice the right which the former involves. 
And finally, as truth is always beneficial, and 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 161 

error always pernicious to society, and as inquiry 
' is the only mode by which we can ever arrive at 
truth, so all attempts to restrict inquiry are 
wrong and unjust. 

These are some of the grounds upon which the 
right to free inquiry and to the free expression of 
opinion may be defended. And in view of them 
we may ask, why allow statutes to remain unre- 
pealed, which are obnoxious to reason, and con- 
trary to common sense? Does Christianity re- 
quire the strong arm of the law to prop it up? 
We should think not, if it is from Heaven. Why, 
then, do professed Christians persecute unbe- 
lievers ? For no other purpose, it would seem, 
than to gratify a thirst for vengeance, which their 
principles and religion are unable to repress. 

PREACHING. 

Perhaps for some years to come the practice of 
preaching will continue ; but if it improves for the 
next quarter of a century as much as it has dur- 
ing the last quarter, it will probably be then a 
comparatively useful mode of public teaching. 
Its present improvement is owing not to the in- 
trinsic merit of the Bible or religion, but to the 
outside pressure of Liberalism or Infidelity, which 
has compelled the pulpit, in order to preserve 
itself, to take an advanced position more in ac- 
cordance with the growing liberality, intelligence, 



162 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and toleration of the times. This regenerating 
influence must continue, and it must increase, for 
" revolutions [particularly of this kind] never go 
backwards " ; and hence the prospect is, that if, 
in coming generations, there is to be any pulpit 
at all, it must be founded on the facts of reason 
instead of the fancies of a superstitious faith. 

The pulpit-reform has already commenced, and 
" things are working " favorably. People are be- 
coming more intelligent, inquisitive, and reflect- 
ing ; consequently, preaching is rather a different 
affair from what it once was. Nowadays, people 
expect to be instructed, convinced, and persuaded 
by knowledge, reason, and argument. They are 
not satisfied with mere verbiage ; they are not 
moved by empty or unmeaning declamation ; they 
are not alarmed by sepulchral tones and unearthly 
grimaces. The demands of the community in 
regard to the character of public services are con- 
tinually rising with the improvements of the com- 
munity in every branch of science, and in the arts 
and distinctions of civilized life. You may now 
go into a church where once you would expect to 
hear denunciatory and controversial preaching, 
and not much will be uttered to offend a liberal 
mind, except now and then a keynote may be 
touched or an ear-mark shown, lest 'the minister's 
soundness should come under suspicion, or he 
should lose sight of his own identity. This is con- 
siderable gain — a gain to liberality and happiness. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 163 

What will do the people good ? What will be 
the most useful ? What will make them wiser, 
better, and happier? We know of no other rule 
than this by which the propriety and value of 
preaching is to be tested. And it is an encourag- 
ing sign of the times that preaching is becoming 
more and more in accordance with this rule. 
The polemical and denunciatory style of preach- 
ing, which served only to nourish spiritual pride 
and to kindle the vindictive passions, has in a great 
measure ceased. Here and there occasionally you 
may hear the straggling fires of some scattered 
portions of a retreating enemy ; brave men who are 
not willing to quit the field until their last rounds 
are expended, though they fire them into the air. 
Here and there some veteran of the last wars, 
some Greenwich pensioner, who, fired with the 
indomitable spirit of his youth, " loves to shoulder 
his crutch and show how fields were won," may 
figure out to the amusement of the religious, and 
to the grief of the serious, who have ceased to be 
alarmed by the manoeuvres of the most skilful 
tactician. But this denunciatory and controver- 
sial preaching has almost ceased. The growing 
intelligence of the people, and that which is its 
usual concomitant, the spirit of free inquiry and 
independent judgment, have put it down, and 
many of its warmest friends have been as anxious, 
as their consistency would allow them to be, to 
have it put down, because they found it was put- 
ting tliem down. 



164 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

What are most requisite in a public teacher, are 
clearness of perception and soundness of judg- 
ment ; a love of truth which nothing can quench ; 
a sagacity in discerning, and a fea^rlessness in 
avowing it, which becomes those who understand 
its proper value ; and these, when joined to indus- 
try and perseverance, afford the fairest promise of 
usefulness. 



THE SUPPLY OF NATURAL WANTS. 

Man requires the full supply of his physical 
necessities, and as he has hitherto remained in an 
antagonistic position to his fellow-beings, he finds 
it necessary to secure for his own use as much 
property as he can procure. If the full supply of 
his wants were to be guaranteed to him by society 
he would not be likely to amass wealth which he 
could not consume. 

There are, however, several influences which 
may induce a man to grasp after wealth, independ- 
ent of the desire to supply his natural wants. 
Wealth gives a man power over the labor of his 
fellow-beings, affords him respectability in society, 
and enables him to gratify his pride by living in 
the fashion. The consideration of these advan- 
tages exercises a powerful influence over many 
minds. There are thousands, if not tens of thou- 
sands, who prefer the indulgence of their pride, 
their ambition, and their selfishness to the promo- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 165 

tion of the public welfare. Whether this results 
from the peculiarity of their cranial development, 
or from an evil training, or from the influence of 
local cii'cumstances, there can be no doubt of the 
reality of the fact. The conduct of men, in this 
respect serves to sho\y the nature of the influences 
by which they are actuated, and the existence of 
those influences explains the reason why men en- 
deavor to acquire private posessions. 

But, independent of the simple desire to secure 
the supply of our natural wants, of course includ- 
ing the wants of those with whom we are most 
intimate, all the other motives we have alluded to 
are impure and ignoble. AVhat, are ambition, 
avarice, the love of power, the desire of show, in 
accordance, exclusivelj^ with man's moral being? 
Forbid it, justice, philanthropy and truth ! It 
would indeed be a lamentable chapter in the his- 
tory of the human race if these characteristics of 
an ill-trained humanity were so essentially in- 
woven in the texture of our moral nature as not 
to admit of eradication. That men have been 
ambitious is admissible ; that they are so essen- 
tially, and without a possibility of cure, is an un- 
provable assumption. That insatiable avarice, 
like a fell monster, has breathed upon the hearts 
of some men, and turned their natural warmth 
into frost, and their sweetness into gall, is an 
assertion warranted by the conduct of many indi- 
viduals. This, however, affords no proof of the 



166 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

assumption that avarice belongs essentially to 
human nature. All these bad and injurious pas- 
sions and propensities result from the training we 
receive, and the evil influences that operate upon 
us throughout life. 

That ambition, avarice, and other evil passions, 
are mere accidents which the progress of the mind 
in knowledge and philosophy gradually removes, 
is a fact fully attested by the annals of private 
life. Are there not hundreds of individuals who 
would expend tlieir resources in the relief of dis- 
tress? Is there no sympathy, no affection, no 
philanthropy in the world ? Does the human 
heart never feel the soft impulses of generosity ? 
Has benevolence been confined to the breasts of 
Howard, Clarkson, Wilberforce, Owen and Girard? 
Is human nature a soil adapted to afford nutrition 
to every noxious plant, and not fitted to afford 
nourishment to those virtues that adorn the char- 
acter and make us feel proud of our humanity? 
No ! These suppositions are degrading to our 
nature, contradictory to facts, and inimical to 
virtue. 

If, however, it be admitted that human nature 
is essentially good, and that there is in man a 
natural principle of benevolence, it will follow 
that the system of private property, instead of 
being in accordance with the nature of man, is 
directly opposed to it. The competitive system 
causes many to be in want of the necessaries of 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 167 

life, and the natural benevolence of the human 
heart disposes us to commiserate and relieve the 
distresses of our fellow-men. But in hundreds of 
cases where this benevolent desire is felt, the 
means are wanting, whereby it might be gratified. 
Private interests and domestic rights frequently 
interfere with our feelings of public philanthropy, 
so that when we would alleviate the sufferings of 
our fellow-men, we find it, in some cases, impoli- 
tic, and in others, impossible. Here it is obvious 
that the present system of society comes into 
direct collision with the noblest feelings of our 
nature. 

Again: The poor are obliged to compete with 
each other ; not with respect to the outlay of their 
moneyed capital, of which tliey are minus^ but 
with respect to their labor, the only capital they 
have at their disposal. 

It is obvious that in such a wearisome and pro- 
tracted struggle for the goods of life, some must 
rise and others fall ; some be enabled to gratify 
their inordinate avarice, and others be kept in 
•poverty. Hence the system of competition is not 
in accordance with human nature, for, if that sys- 
tem enables some to rise in the scale of affluence, 
it depresses others in proportion. And if it be 
argued that the system is right because some rise, 
it may be argued that it is wrong because others 
fall. " 

The preceding observations imply that the sys- 



168 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

tern of private property cannot be defended on the 
ground of abstract correspondence with the moral 
nature of man. If, therefore, it be defensible at 
all, it must be on the score of its utility. If it be 
better fitted to promote the welfare of mankind 
than the co-operative system, then let it be pre- 
served ; but if not, it should be abolished, and a 
new order of things established in its place. 

THE EIGHT TO GOOD GOVERNMENT. 

One of the most important rights which belong 
to man as a member of society is the right to good 
government. It is quite evident, we think, that 
constituted as society is now, some kind of gov- 
ernment is absolutely necessary to its well-being ; 
and it is not less true, that whatever form of gov- 
ernment any community may think proper to 
adopt, should be of the best character. A good 
government should possess, it seems to us, the fol- 
lowing characteristics : — 

First. — It should be cheap; for if the people 
should be immoderately taxed to support the gov- 
ernment, the evils resulting from such a system 
would counterbalance the good. 

Second, — It should be effective ; for if such 
were not to be the case, it would be unable to 
benefit the people by enacting wise and well-ar- 
ranged laws, and by enforcing their observance. 

Third. — It should be disinterested as it regards 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 169 

particular class interests, making laws not for the 
benefit of one particular portion of the community, 
but for the benefit of all. 

Fourth. — It should be entirely elective ; as the 
people would then occasionally have the power of 
ejecting from office those men who might betray 
a regardlessness of the public welfare. 

Fifth — It should truly represent all classes of 
the community; that is, the members should be 
elected to office by all who are capable of under- 
standing political affairs. From this, it follows, 
that the right of voting should be given to all who 
are capable of exercising the suffrage. 

It is unnecessary to examine the question as to 
the best form of government out of the many that 
have been adopted by mankind ; for we are all 
agreed, we presume, that ours, or a republic, is 
the best ; but still it has defects which will have 
to be remedied before it becomes the best, in its 
practical workings, which can be devised. The 
preceding characteristics of a good government 
will enable the reader to test the merits of all the 
forms of government which have been adopted by 
different nations. In addition to these, the follow- 
ing abstract rules are worthy of attention: — 

First. — The great end for which government 
is instituted, is the promotion of the general wel- 
fart;. If, therefore, any form of government fails 
to produce this effect, we may confidently pro- 
nounce that form of government to be defective. 



170 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

Second, — The duty of a government is to se- 
cure to individuals the full enjoyment of their 
rights. If, therefore, any form of government 
should fail in this respect, it must be defective 
also. 

Third. — It is the duty of a government to see 
that the people receive a good physical, mental, 
and moral training ; and any government that 
neglects this important duty, must be defective. 

Fourth. — It is the duty of a government to 
take all practicable steps which may tend to in- 
crease the production of wealth, and also to see 
that the wealth produced be properly distributed ; 
in other words, that the wants of all be fully sup- 
plied. If any form of government tend to prevent 
this, or if any legislative assembly should feel 
unwilling to do it, that form of government must 
be defective, and the members of that legislative 
assembly ought to be deposed. This test is espe- 
cially applicable to all governments which have (or 
might have if they only would) abundant facilities 
for the production of wealth at their disposal. 

The preceding observations appear to us to 
embrace all the characteristics and all the duties 
of a good government. If, therefore, these char- 
acteristics can be found in any government, that 
government deserves to be supported, not by the 
bayonets of a hired soldiery, but by the affections 
of the people. 

In conclusion, no nation can be truly happy or 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 171 

prosperous while it remains destitute of any, or of 
all of tlie above-mentioned rights. They are ab- 
solutely necessary, to the well-being of any peo- 
ple; they are what the human mind longs for; 
and what the onward march of genuine democracy 
and liberal principles - will ultimately compel all 
governments to grant. No population can be 
truly happy under a government which provides 
merely for their animal enjoyments, but which, at 
the same time, represses the noble love of liberty 
by a systematic and slavish system of education. 
It is in this respect that the paternal despotism of 
Austria is defective. It provides for the people a 
supply of food and enjoyment, which is in itself 
an excellent thing. But it at the same time 
degrades the mentality of the people, by prohibit- 
ing as far as its power will permit, inquiry and 
discussion. We shall probably never have exactly 
the right kind of government until the promotion 
of the general good becomes the sole actuating 
principle of human conduct. 

FEMALE INFLUENCE. 

Woman has a far greater influence on the public 
morals than the ministers of religion, though 
whatever the latter may accomplish in this respect 
is commendable on their part, and we would not 
withhold from them the credit to which they are 
fairly entitled. Morality, and not religion, being 



172 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

"the one thing needful," those who promote the 
former, are the true benefactors of society. Now 
women have a greater influence for better or 
worse, than ministers, because, as one reason, the 
number of the first is very much larger than the 
second. Mothers, and next to them school-teach- 
ers, plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil 
that exist in the world ; and as there are probably 
a thousand mothers and teachers to one minister, 
they have an almost unlimited influence for good 
or evil, over the minds and hearts of those com- 
mitted to their charge. May it not, therefore, be 
justly said that they plant the seeds of nearly all 
the good and evil in the world ? 

But female influence in the formation of the 
right kind of character, is as yet but little under- 
stood. The philosopher talks about it; the 
friends of education, the patriot, the philanthro- 
pist, and the minister proclaim it ; almost every- 
body admits it ; some even believe it; — and yet, 
Avhat is done ? Not much, comparatively; in fact, 
scarcely anything. Woman is not only unknown 
to the other sex, but to herself. She has no sort 
of conception of her powers, or responsibilities. 

She does not dream of a tithe of the good she 
might accomplish. If you tell her that her influ- 
ence is not less in the restoration, than in the fall 
of our race, she either misunderstands you or 
regards you as visionary. By her own misman- 
agement, and especially by the mismanagement of 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 173 

her constituted lord, she is still the creature, and, 
to a great extent the dupe, of fashion, frivolity, 
superstition, and priestcraft. We speak of the 
sex generally, knowing there are noble exceptions, 
and that they are every day becoming more nu- 
merous. 

When the rights, duties, and capabilities of 
women are better understood by both sexes, there 
will be an improved state of things ; society will 
be far in advance of what it is to-day ; and female 
influence, enlightened and regenerated, will prove 
itself the true savior of mankind. It is all impor- 
tant, in the improvement and salvation of the race, 
that the mothers should be properly educated ; for 
the maxim is not less correct now than when first 
proclaimed by Confucius, that '' By the manners 
of the children we may judge of the temper of 
the mother." 

IIVIPOETANCE OF COIVOION SCHOOLS. 

A great many people seem to think that the 
permanency of our free institutions, the durability 
of republicanism, and, in short, all the highest 
and best interests of the country, depend on 
churches. We are of the opinion that all of these 
important things depend on common schools. 
They are the people's colleges ; the sun of the 
people's mind; the lamp of freedom. Perhaps 
nineteen out of every twenty persons in these 
United States are educated in common schools 



174 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

alone ; not one out of twenty ever enters either 
academy or college. This fact in itself tells us, 
at once, that as is the common school so is the 
education of the American people. Yes, the edu- 
cation of this nation is that and that only, which 
the common schools are prepared to give. How 
many, who read these lines, ever received more ? 
You may have educated yourselves after you left 
those schools, but did not even this depend on the 
education which you there received ? 

Look at the connection of common schools with 
social order and prosperity. The educated man 
and the educated woman have other sources of 
enjoyment and other subjects of conversation than 
their neighbor's characters ; but leave the mind 
empty, and frivolous gossipping and tea-table chat 
will be the amusement of their leisure hours. 
There is nothing we hold important or useful in 
society, but it is connected more or less directly 
with our schools. We may pile all the hilltops 
with magnificent architecture, but let the plain, 
brick schoolhouse go down, and very soon all the 
columns and architraves and domes will tumble 
with it into ruin. What is the true foundation 
of a republic ? It is the common school. If we 
v/ould have the one stand firm, we must build the 
other deep and sure. To neglect common schools 
is as bad as to destroy ; nay, it is even worse ; for 
mal-information is worse than no information, just 
as hunger is preferable to poisoned food. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 175 



THE CLERGY AND REFORM. 

The clergy are always enlisted on the conserva- 
tive side of all questions. We do not mean to 
cast any severe reflections on the clergy, wTien we 
say, that from the very nature and circumstances 
of their office in this country, they are, and always 
must be, behind the age, while these circumstances 
continue, in all matters appertaining to genuine 
intellectual improvement, and in the species of 
moral improvement which arises out of philosoph- 
ical inquiry. At the same time they will always, 
as a body, be in advance of the age in that kind 
of superficial morality which consists in the obser- 
vance of the decencies of life, and of mere theolog- 
ical precepts. They were for a season behind 
the age in the temperance reform, because temper- 
ance is not a theological virtue, but a moral one. 
When the current of public opinion set that way, 
the clergy not only floated along with it, but they 
spread their sails and went ahead of it, in some 
instances. 

Whenever any reform or innovation is at- 
tempted, which is opposed to the established 
prejudices of the community, the clergy will ne- 
cessarily fall in with it only as fast as it gains the 
approbation of the people. All this arises very 
obviously from our republican system of support- 
ing religion. Any individual of the clergy who 
should, by the new doctrines he preached, mani- 



176 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

fest himself in advance of his parishioners, would 
be immediately displaced for another whose opin- 
ions are as backward as the ruling members of 
the parish. And it is seldom a clergyman's per- 
sonal popularity is great enough to preserve him 
in his situation, in spite of religious prejudice 
against him. This circumstance necessarily oper- 
ates to drive all such as are in advance of the 
community out of the profession, unless they can 
submit to the practice of a certain degree of dis- 
simulation. Miss Martineau was therefore un- 
charitable in mentioning this fact as a matter of 
reproach against the clergy. Every man in the 
community knows that the clergyman of a parish 
is settled over it by the people, with reference to 
his agreement with them in doctrine, and with the 
understanding that all his eloquence is to be used 
in assisting them to maintain their present views. 
Should he make any innovation in point of doc- 
trine, he must wait until the majority are pre- 
viously prepared for it, under the penalty of being 
turned out of his pulpit, or he must have the art 
of insinuating his new doctrines into their minds 
under the cover of some old worn-out superstition 
which shall serve to render it palatable. It is 
needless to remark, that, on this account, the 
change must necessarily occur in the minds of the 
people first, and that afterwards they will allow 
their pastor to change his views in conformity 
with theirs. How can we, under such circumstan- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 177 

ces, reproach the clergy with being behind the age? 
As well might we reproach the effect for not pre- 
ceding the cause. Neither do we mean to accuse 
the clergy of insincerity ; for this republican sys- 
tem of supporting religion (which is, after all, the 
best one) prevents those individuals who are in 
advance of the age from adopting the profession 
of divinity, and draws them into the ranks of one 
of the other professions. 

VIRTUE AND VICE. 

Morality, simply considered as the bond of soci- 
ety^ has no more to do with a future life, than it 
had with a past one : men seldom act in the common 
concerns of the world, from the hope of a distant 
and uncertain reward: — they feel impelled by 
something more immediate and forcible. The 
laws which must ever govern human nature, exist 
in that nature itself. Man being what he is, his 
nature determines his morality, inasmuch as it de- 
termines the effect which every external or inter- 
nal influence shall produce for good or for evil; if 
for good, that influence is virtuous ; if for evil, it 
is vicious. Having discovered what impressions 
afford him true and permanent enjoyment, and 
what influences occasion him painful sensations, 
we deduce thence his rules of conduct. This ap- 
pears to be the only reasonable method, for all the 
philosophy and all the religion in the world, will 



178 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

never be able to carry us beyond the usual course 
of experience, or give us measures of conduct and 
behavior different from those which are furnished 
by reflections on common life. No new fact can 
be inferred from the religious hypothesis ; no 
event foreseen or foretold ; no reward or punish- 
ment expected or dreaded beyond what is already 
known by practice and observation. 

Moral conduct springs from the mutual wants 
and interests of mankind. It is each man's inter- 
est that his neighbor should be virtuous; hence 
each man knows that public opinion will approve 
his conduct, if virtuous, — reprobate it, if vicious. 
And whenever mankind at large perceive, and 
whenever legislators act upon the perception, that 
virtue and vice exist solely with reference to the nat- 
ure of human beings — then may we expect to see 
truth and reason prevail in the world. -Those 
rules of conduct only can rightly be called laws, 
w^hich regulate human actions alike on one day as 
on another day; and in a nation calling itself a 
republic, the laws of Moses should have no validity 
in courts of law to authorize persecutions for the 
breach of superstitious customs. Our highest ob- 
ject and the end of our endeavors, should be to 
free our country from the exercise of all religious 
tests in all judicial proceedings, and from Sunday 
penalties which violate the simple and imprescript- 
ible rights of man. The tyranny of priests is as 
odious and insufferable as that of kings. The at- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 179 

tempt to justify the violation of natural liberty 
because the majority adhere to those Mosaical pre- 
scriptions which occasion it, only enhances the 
injustice. 

When the priests and their supporters say, that 
" The dogma of future rewards and punishments 
is the bond of society, and that to overthrow this 
dogma of the evangelical economy would release 
three quarters of the Christian world from all re- 
straint, " they might with truth rather say, that 
their imposition would be overthrown, and that 
the tyrannical institutions and exercise of priestly 
power would be immediately set aside. Men for 
their own safety are interested in the observance 
of the obligations of civil order, and indeed, its 
infringement leads to strengthened measures for 
enforcing its provisions, and to their increased 
effect by the experience of their indispensability. 
He must be as great a simpleton who believes that 
there could possibly be a necessity for a general 
flood over the earth to execute vengeance on the 
offenders against natural morals, as he who gives 
credit to its physical possibility. 

Experience teaches us that the calamities of 
mankind have sprung from their superstitious 
opinions. The ignorance of natural causes created 
gods, and imposture made them terrible. Man- 
kind lived unhappy because they were taught 
from their infancy to think that God had con- 
demned them to misery. They never entertained 



180 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

a wish to break their chains, because they were 
taught that devotion, the renouncing of reason, 
mental debility, and spiritual debasement were 
the only means of obtaining salvation. 

PROVIDENCE. 

It is plain that Providence never interferes to 
protect innocence, or to prevent mischief, either 
amongst the inferior animals or mankind. The 
more we examine into the animal world, the more 
we shall be convinced that every different species 
and individual is regulated by its own particular 
interest, without reference to the advantage of 
any other species or individual, and not by any 
interference of Providence. We may also observe 
that there are various species of animals which are 
formed by Nature, solely for the purpose of 
destroying others. Their claws, their mouths, 
their teeth, are exactly calculated for devouring ; 
and their stomachs are so constituted that animal 
food is their only nourishment, and they would 
linger and die without it. Now if God, or Provi- 
dence, had intended anything like peace and har- 
mony to exist in the world, he would have so 
constituted animals of all kinds that they should 
feed on roots, vegetables, fruits, fungi, and other 
inanimate substances which should have been 
made to grow from the earth in sufficient abun- 
dance and varietj^ for every description of ani- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 181 

mals. And the system of procreation might also 
have been so regulated that there never should 
have been too many nor too few animals in the 
world at one time ; and then no one animal, nor 
species, nor genus of animals w^ould have been 1 
the natural enemy of another ; but the face of 
the earth would then have exhibited a busy scene 
of various animals, all living in perfect happi- 
ness. 

The belief in a Providence is not consistent 
with the general laws of Nature, and those who 
profess to believe it act as if they believed it not. 
Such an absurd doctrine can only be useful to 
kings and priests, and other deceivers of mankind, 
who use the word Providence to give their trans- 
actions an authority that must not be called in 
question, and under which authority they carry 
on the most malevolent practices. Thus they 
screen themselves from public censure, as no per- 
son that believes in a regulating Providence will 
attach any blame to them. But it should be our 
business to banish from our midat all belief in a 
Providence, and to behave with prudence and 
sobriety in all our actions, to use our best endeav- 
ors in well-doing, and not allow ourselves to be 
duped by those who pretend that Providence reg- 
ulates all the transactions of men in authority, 
however injurious to individuals or mankind in 
general. Let us, therefore, persevere with manly 
endeavor to be useful to ourselves and to our 



182 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

fellow-men, trusting nothing to any imaginary 
being called Providence. 

EDITING. 

The mind is so constituted as to require, like 
the body, alternate labor and repose. Those occu- 
pations which demand great and frequent efforts 
of the mind, if they allow it suitable seasons for 
relaxation, are not injurious to health. Judicious 
exercise is necessary for the healthful develop- 
ment and vigorous action of the mental as well as 
the physical constitution. The occupations of the 
lawyer, the divine, the farmer, and the mechanic, 
all afford the mind abundant periods of rest. 
But such is not the case with that of the editor. 
His overtasked intellect finds no repose. His 
duties must be performed continually, — most me- 
thodically. Whether he feels like mental exercise 
or not, whether sick or well, his articles must be 
written, and all his multifarious duties performed. 
These labors are certainly sufficient to break down 
an ordinary constitution, but when we add to 
them pecuniary disappointment and embarrass- 
ment, lack of expected appreciation, the indiffer- 
ence of friends and the sarcasm of enemies, we 
have satisfactory explanation of the causes which 
disappoint the hopes, and cut short the career of 
so great a portion of newspaper editors. 

There is occasionally an editor endowed with a 
strong body and a well-poised mind, alike indiffer- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 183 

ent to censure and praise, satisfied with his own 
powers, neither allured by hope, nor alarmed by 
fears, who will triumph over all obstacles, and 
pursuing calmly the even tenor of his way, attain 
renown, wealth, and long life ; but whilst such an 
individual may, like any other prodigy, occasion- 
all}^ be found, numbers will fall around him the 
victims of unrequited mental labor and disap- 
pointed hopes. 

A CHEERFUL PHILOSOPHY. 

Surely no doubt should be entertained that this 
life should be made a happy and a cheerful one, 
that all the faculties with which we are gifted 
should be cultivated and improved, and that all 
the means of rational and innocent pleasure should 
be cherished. Is the earth wrapped up in a gloomy 
mantle, or in a delightful verdure ? Does the vege- 
table world put forth its leaves, its blossom and its 
fruits, and its delightful fragrance in sadness and 
mourning, or in 303^ and thanksgiving ? Does the 
returning sleep of exhausted nature awaken emo- 
tions of distrust and despondency, or teach us a 
tranquillizing lesson of the change which is to hap- 
pen in human existence ? Does the storm of winter, 
and the snowy covering in which it clothes the 
earth, terrify us with the power of Nature, or 
awaken new thoughts of contentment and satisfac- 
tion? Is the animal world destined to pain and 



184 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHT^. 

misery, or to pleasure and gladness ? Which of its 
many tribes does not cling to life as a precious gift ? 
Why, then, should man regard his God — if there 
be one — as a stern and inexorable tyrant, and not 
as a kind and beneficent sovereign over all the 
human race ? 

It is evident, we think, that this gloomy and 
absurd doctrine was originated and has been main- 
tained by religion, and that it will continue until 
the religion which produced it is superseded by a 
liberal and rational philosophy. There is no rea- 
sonable doubt that this philosophy, when properly 
taught and understood, will diffuse itself, event- 
ually, throughout the earth. However slowly that 
day may seem, to bigots and sectarians, to be 
coming, that day will finally come, and long before 
eighteen hundred years, or the time that Christian- 
ity has been upon the earth. Why has Liberalism 
made so little progress, comparatively, during eight- 
teen centuries ? This question can be satisfac- 
torily answered only by recurrence to the history 
of the world during that long lapse of time in 
which Christianity was in the ascendant, and 
exercised supreme sway and dominion. If we had 
space for such a purpose now, it could be easily 
proved that it is rather wonderful that Liberalism 
has made so much, rather than that it has not 
made greater, progress. When it shall come to 
be fully understood as a matter in accordance with 
the highest development of human reason, there 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 185 

will be no cause of discouragement as to its uni- 
versal diffusion. 

It is an unquestionable truth that the best 
method of disseminating truth and virtue, is to 
cultivate the human mind and to impart to it com- 
prehensive and philosophic knowledge. The wis- 
est men are the best men, but as there are many 
different constructions of the nature and obliga- 
tions of the Christian faith, they cannot all be 
best, and we doubt whether any one of them is. 
That system of teaching and morals which is best 
will be known only as general intelligence is dif- 
fused, and as the intelligent are led to inquire and 
to judge. Even the contentions among Christians 
themselves tend to this result, because if there be 
any truth in the Gospel, it will eventually come 
out of these controversies The people of these 
United States are singularly blessed that no regal 
or sacerdotal power, and no political authority, 
presents any obstacle to free inquiry. The tongue, 
the pen, and the press, together with free discus- 
sion and free speech, will bring about the true 
philosophy and practice, whatever that may be 
found to be. 

A NOBLE LIFE. 

Exertion is the price of a noble life. The pur- 
suit of a noble object adorns, ennobles, and vivi- 
fies life. Without definite aim, life is like a 
rudderless ship, drifting about between life and 



186 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

death, and entirely at the mercy of the waves. 
While one with folded arms waits for future 
opportunities, another makes the meanest occur- 
rences subservient to a golden result. One labors 
to find something to do ; the other labors to do 
something. When the Alps intercepted his line 
of march, Napoleon said, " There shall be no 
Alps." When difficulties from poverty, and diffi- 
culties from the opposition of friends beset him, 
Franklin resolutely determined there should be no 
difficulties. Greatness has in its vocabulary no 
such word as fail. It will work ; it must succeed. 
Happy is he who at the sunset of life can recall 
the years that have gone swift-footed by, without 
bringing before him a fearful array of squandered 
opportunities. 

ACTIONS. 

The important object that bears upon society, 
refers itself to the actions of men. Stephen 
Girard was perhaps as irreproachable in his habits 
as the generalit)^ of his species, and did much 
good. Yet he has been reproaclied for his opin- 
ions. The legitimate inquiry of society ought to 
have reference only to our conduct. Is he sober 
and industrious ? Is he a good husband, a 
good father, an exemplary, upright citizen? Is 
he honest and square in his dealings? There 
are few of us that live up to the standard 
here indicated. It is pleasant, however, to feel 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 187 

and know that we have reached that point of im- 
provement where we have found out that he who 
is all these, stands not in need of clerical interpo- 
sition to give him a passjDort to heaven. We 
have a heaven on earth, in that peace of mind, the 
reward of virtue. 

When, therefore, the religionists of the day 
come to compare notes with us, where do we 
differ ? We do not believe, they say. True, we 
do not believe in professions, in doctrines, in 
creeds. These are not of God ; they are of man : 
they are the inventions of designing men, who 
would live upon the credulity of their fellow-men, 
instead of the exercise of that labor which they 
denounce as a curse. We would not be under- 
stood to charge these designs upon those who now 
believe and act conscientiously. This is not our 
intention. We believe they are sincere, and we 
only ask them to extend the same charity to us. 
The great concern of mankind is charity. 

EIGHTS. 

All just governments originate with the people. 
With respect to religious and political rights, we 
are all born equal. '' One half of mankind (as 
the Democratic Jefferson said) " are not born 
with saddles on their backs, and the other half 
born booted and spurred, ready to ride them by 
the grace of God." Might can never make that 



188 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

right which is not right in itself. There are cer 
tain inalienable rights of which no man can be 
deprived — unless forfeited by crime — without 
violating a natural and fundamental principle of 
justice. Of these are the rights of conscience. 
We have the same natural right to entertain, to 
express, and to disseminate our Infidel opinions, 
that our Christian neighbor has to promulgate and 
advocate his. And if all our neighbors should be 
of one opinion, and we alone should differ with 
them, the case, as it respects rights, is not at all 
altered. They would have the power^ but they 
would have no more right to injure us than we 
should have to injure them. 

Upon the very same principle, a majority of the 
people in this commonwealth, however great that 
majority might be, would have no more natural 
right, if so disposed, to make and put in force 
any law which should injure a single individual 
of the state, on account of his religious sentiments, 
or the open profession of them, than they would to 
take an innocent man's life. 



EELIGION AND COMMON SENSE. 

We hear a great deal about '' pure religion," 
and the phrase seems to be an admission that all 
religion is not pure, which is no doubt the fact ; 
but what quality of religion is genuine, or who 
possess it, may be difficult to decide. And even 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 189 

if we knew, how much better off should we be? 
For what is religion, in itself considered, and sep- 
arate from morality, to which it has no just or 
proper claim ? It is a system of faith in, and wor- 
ship of, supernatural agencies and beings. That is 
about all there is of it, when summed up in brief. 
It may exist, no doubt, in the character of a good 
man, but it is no proof of goodness in the individ- 
ual, nor that he is laboring for the welfare of hu- 
manity. It is only, as we have said, a system of 
faith and worship having reference to the super- 
natural. That is religion, and all that rightly 
belongs to it. We fail to see wherein it can be of 
any benefit to this world, and as for another, it is 
not settled yet whether there is one. 

Now in order to have a system that is useful 
and practical, it ought not to consist in unmeaning 
phrases, forms, and ceremonies, but in the unceas- 
ing practice of promoting the happiness of every 
human being, without regard to sex, party, coun- 
try, or color — and confine its labors entirely to 
this world, depending on knowledge rather than 
faith, and human efforts instead of prayers to a 
supernatural Deity. This is a common-sense sys- 
tem or philosophy, and one in which there are no 
metaphj^sical difficulties or mystery, and which 
every child even, who is properly educated, will be 
taught to practise through life — and which he 
will necessarilj^ practise, as no incentive to in- 
jure his fellow-man will then exist, such as form 



190 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

an inherent and essential part of the present order 
of society. Under the common-sense system to 
which we allude, there would not be the slightest 
pretext for keeping up those holy bugbears which 
are supposed by many Christians to be so indis- 
pensable at present to control the vicious inclina- 
tions of human beings, such as avenging Gods, 
devils, priestly prayers, and denunciations; but 
mankind will be governed by reason, and learn 
their duty by obeying the laws of Nature, which 
are the only true guides. 



SCIENCE AND EELIGION. 

It is generally agreed, we believe, that the 
human race has made great progress in the arts 
and sciences, and it seems equally plain and self- 
evident that the fact excites no fear or alarm. 
We nowhere find, in civilized nations, that the 
people complain because they are superior, in 
regard to invention and discovery, to their ances- 
tors who preceded them. On the contrary, they* 
exult at the beneficial change, and joyfully " accept 
the situation." They congratulate themselves on 
the material improvement everywhere visible, and 
the man who at this day should sigh for the return 
of the ancient age, when art and science were 
almost unknown, would be considered as an 
anomaly indeed, if not bereft of his senses. He 
would be thought to be one of those unfortunate 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 191 

people who prefer to grope their way in blindness 
and ignorance, as was the fate of the masses of 
mankind before the invention of the printing-press 
and the mariner's compass. And if mankind are 
not disturbed at their physical improvement over 
the past, so neither are they, in this respect, in 
regard to the future. If in the coming genera- 
tions, our descendants shall be able to travel in 
safety a hundred miles an hour on the railroads, 
or sail in the air about the country in balloon- 
ships, or walk on the water as on the hind, or by 
some " elixir of life " prolong existence to five hun- 
dred years, supposing these things possible and 
probable, they give no uneasiness in prospect, nor 
will they if realized. Somehow, mankind have 
no apprehension of danger from physical discov- 
eries in any of the departments of science, but 
seem to rest satisfied with the conviction that it 
is all for the best, and thus it is that in this par- 
ticular, at least, the most intelligent Christians 
and all heretics are united, as it were, on a com- 
mon ground. 

But when we come to " religion," as it is called, 
the whole scene changes. Here there is no prog- 
ress, nor can there be in the nature of the case, 
and it is sinful and wicked to allow of any. Re- 
ligion is said to be divine, and of course it is a 
finality, for it includes everything in its especial 
department, and cannot possibly be improved upon 
in any degree whatever, therefore it is perfect, 



192 OCCASrOKAL THOUGHTS. 

and progress where there is perfection is entirely 
superfluous, unnecessary, and out of the question. 
Yet (and here is the crowning absurdity), this 
standard of moral truth and duty called religion, 
was proclaimed eighteen hundred years ago, among 
an ignorant people in an obscure corner of the earth, 
and it is in tended for, and is strictly applicable 
to, all mankind in all ages to come, as long as time 
shall last, for as it came from God, mortal man 
can never improve upon it ! Such is the nature 
of religion, as defined by its teachers. It is per- 
fect all through, and consequently needs not and 
cannot have any improvement. But mankind 
make progress in everything else? Undoubt- 
edty, and they glory in the fact ; yet in religion, 
the motto has always been, since its birth, and is 
now, " Keep as you are ; remove not the ancient 
landmarks of our faith and worship, or the moral 
world will tumble into ruins." This, in sub- 
stance, has been the cry of religion for the last 
two thousand years, nearly, and when from time 
to time during this long period men have appeared 
in Europe and opposed this religion on the ground 
that it was imperfect and might be improved, they 
were denounced as " Infidels," enemies, and burnt 
to death. No other course could have been pur- 
sued with them under the circumstances. They 
opposed a religion which claims to be Divine, and 
was so regarded, and as their opposition was con- 
sidered to be the unpardonable sin, they were per- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 193 

secuted and put to death in honor of the church 
and for the glory of God. Their punishment as 
unavoidably grew out of religion, as effect flows 
from cause, and herein is involved the radical, in- 
trinsic, inherent, or the fundamental error which 
has always made and always will make religion a 
hindrance and a stumbling-block in the path of prog- 
ress; namely, it forbids improvement. ''If any 
man preach any other Gospel than this, let him be 
accursed." Here, in this admonition of a New 
Testament Apostle, we have the spirit which has 
always characterized religion, and rendered it an 
injury rather than a blessing to mankind. Estab- 
lished in an age of ignorance and superstition, and 
presuming to be Divine or perfect, religion has 
necessarily been a clog or barrier to mental im- 
provement ; for arrogating to itself perfection at 
the start, it had nothing to learn, because it claimed 
to know everything when it commenced. But 
this is folly, as the knowledge possessed to-day by 
mankind has been obtained by long and patient 
study, observation, and experience, and therefore 
it is not less absurd to teach that Adam and Eve 
were born or created a full-grown man and woman, 
than it is to claim that a religion of eighteen cen- 
turies ago cannot be improved upon, but is exactly 
fitted for the moral and intellectual condition of 
the race as long as it shall exist. With just as 
much propriety might it be maintained, that the 
clothes of the infant are adapted to the growth 



194 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

and size of the man, or that the little amount of 
knowledge generally possessed in ancient times, is 
all that mankind will ever require in the present 
and future. The poor simpleton of a courtier 
whom we used to read of in the story books, who 
thought in his vanity that he could chain the 
waves, was no more out in his reckoning than 
those Christians who vainly attempt to fasten a 
padlock upon the human mind, and keep it eter- 
nally in one position. It cannot be done. The 
mind will sooner or later throw off its trammels, 
for it is always restless and active, and this being 
its nature, there can be no finality to any subject 
of thought, as every generation will have its own 
views upon it. Hence it is that the Christian 
religion, proclaimed in Judea eighteen centuries 
ago, has been as unavoidably improved as the no- 
tions of science that prevailed at that time, and 
in these days the improvement of the former is 
greatly accelerated. Progress is the standard 
under which the world is now marching, and relig- 
ion, as well as science and government, must "fall 
in " or '' go under." 

THOUGHTS ON LIFE AND DEATH. 

One of the leading doctrines of the Christian 
Religion is, as a prayer for the sick expresses it, 
" to fit and prepare for death." Now there is no 
reasonable objection, when a person is near his 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 195 

final hour, to making his last moments as easy, 
quiet, and peaceful as possible, in order that the 
sufferer may pass off to his rest in as comfortable 
a manner as the kind offices of friends can devise. 
And if to some people this desirable effect can be 
brought about by prayer, it might be used on 
about the same principle as physicians give an 
anodyne, to tranquilize the nerves. The doctor 
does not expect to accomplish a cure when he sees 
recovery impossible, and therefore he turns his 
attention towards rendering the last moments of 
his patient as quiet and painless as medical skill 
and experience can suggest. The motive is 
prompted by kindness, and so everybody who pos- 
sesses this feeling, approves of the course of the 
doctor in such cases. On the same principle and 
for the same purpose, prayer might be beneficial ; 
and if it can be, there is no more that is unreason- 
able, perhaps, as far as the sick man is concerned, 
in praying for him, than there is in assuaging his 
mortal pains with some oblivious opiate. We 
should always be ready and willing to do any act 
which benefits our fellow-men, when the motive 
for the action is dictated by kindness and benevo- 
lence, and when it involves no surrender of what 
we regard to be true. 

The great objection, however, to prayer in the 
Christian sense as a preparation for death, consists 
in the fact that it is very apt to be viewed as a 
substitute or as an equivalent for a good and use- 



196 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

ful life. This is a great and ruinous error, and 
one that seems to be sanctioned by the New Tes- 
tament itself, in its familiar examples of "the 
eleventh hour "and the death of "the penitent 
thief on the cross." The only inference from this 
kind of teaching is, that a bad life may be atoned 
for by a little contrition or sorrow just before 
death. As well might the farmer in autumn of the 
year expect to gather a crop from a field he had 
never tilled, as a transgressor through life expect 
to become a good and virtuous man on his death- 
bed, by a little sorrow or repentance over a long 
and criminal course of conduct. It is a monstrous 
absurdity, and the only influence it can have is to 
increase crime, rather than diminish it. 

And these reflections lead us to see the utter 
folly of attaching any importance to death under 
such circumstances ; nor is it a true test, in any 
case whatever, that the life has been uniformly 
correct and upright. It may, and no doubt does 
happen that a man's last hours, if he have mind 
enough left to think at all, will prove the sincerity 
with which he holds his opinions, wliatever they 
may be ; but this is no proof that his life has been 
morally good. 

It is character, alone, that makes the right kind 
of a man, and character is acquired only by unex- 
ceptionable conduct in our everyday life and inter- 
course with one another, and not in the solitude 
and privacy of a sick-chamber, when, our work 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 197 

done and our mission ended, we lay ourselves 
down to die. So that the Christian doctrine, 
^^ After death comes the judgment, " is not by any 
means of as much consequence as the judgment 
which is passed on a man's character before his 
death. 

Besides, sickness is not a proper time to form an 
estimate of conduct or mind either. As well 
judge of the strength and completeness of a build- 
ing when its timbers and walls are tumbling to 
the ground, as of the mental and physical condition 
of the man, who, amid the nausea of medicine and 
the spasms of dissolving nature, is but a mere wreck, 
and "nothing is but what is not." From all such 
sickly fancies, engendered by religion, we turn to 
the teachings of Nature and Reason, and we learn 
from them that if we would form a true estimate 
of mankind, we must consider their peculiarities 
or characters when in a state of health and action. 
There can be no error or mistake in this course, 
for here we judge the tree -by the fruit. Prayers 
and professions are only breath, and in themselves 
considered are of no account; but a good life is 
always pure gold, and like that, never fails to be 
appreciated. 

Not to deathbeds, then, are we to look for evi- 
dences of goodness in any man, but to his life, and 
to that alone ; and if he has been in his dealings 
honest, truthful, moral, just, and kind, his life has 
been in the right, though he may never have 



198 OCCASIOITAL THOUGHTS. 

made a prayer, nor attended a church, nor read a 
chapter of the Bible. In religion, these ceremonies 
are indispensable ; but as they are not inherent 
proofs of goodness, it follows that what mankind 
most need for their improvement and happiness is 
not religion but moral character. Religion has 
yeference to another world, of which no one 
knows anything ; morality relates wholly to the 
duties which a man owes to himself and his fellow- 
men here in this life — and these duties can be 
known and practised. There is, therefore, as 
much difference between morality and religion, as 
the governing rules or guides of conduct, as there 
is between the truthful principles of Reason, and 
the fanciful vagaries of a blind superstition. 



FOLLOW THE LIGHT OF EVIDENCE. 

Education, passion, and external circumstances 
have a powerful influence in bewildering the 
minds of honest and well-mtentioned individuals. 
But however gaudily an hypothesis may be 
dressed, an inquirer after truth ought not for a 
moment to be dazzled by the meretricious glitter. 
" He should (as the Rev. Dr. Chalmers observes 
in his Evidences of Christianity^ be prepared to 
FOLLOW THE LIGHT OF evide:n^ce, though it may 
lead him to conclusions the most painful and mel- 
ancholy ; he should train his mind to all the hardi- 
hood of abstract and unfeeling intelligence; he 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 199 

should give up everything to the supremacy of 
argument, and be able to renounce without a sigh, 
all the tenderest prepossessions of infancy, the 
moment the truth demands of him the sacrifice. 

Now, keeping this good advice in mind, let us 
look for a few moments at Nature, or the Material 
Universe, as the uncaused, the self-existent being 
or state, and contrast it with the opposite or the 
spiritual idea, in order that we may discover which 
of the two is the more philosophical. Take for 
illustration, a watch: we infer from its peculiar 
structure and purpose that it had a maker ; expe- 
rience tells us that its maker must have been an 
intellio^ent beings whom we term man. We then 
find that man is a much more complicated machine 
than a watch, and our next inquiry is. Who made 
man? Here experience deserts us. We see a 
regular succession of men and women, but no one 
can show us their origin. Then, as experience is 
no guide in this matter, we endeavor to solve the 
question by the help of analogy. But here we are 
precisely as much in the dark as ever : for though 
we infer that machinery of a kind quite new to 
us, is made by a machinist, yet we have never 
seen any animal created, and therefore have no 
good ground to infer a creator. Still, as it was 
evident that there were powers in Nature with 
which mankind were unacquainted, and which in 
the rude periods of society appeared to be wielded 
by invisible but capricious hands, the notion of an 



200 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

intelligent but an incomprehensible being arose ; 
and thus, perhaps, as Lucretius says, 'Tear finst 
made Gods in the world." 

This notion, thus originating, and afterwards so 
successfully propagated in so many shapes and by 
so many means, acquired a firm footing on the 
earth, and all who were bold enough to ques- 
tion the received dogmas of the priests and 
churches were persecuted as vile unbelievers. 
We have at last arrived then, at the popular rea- 
son for a belief in a Deity, though it is impossible 
to find any agreement among the various sects in 
the different religions in the world respecting him, 
except that he is entirely incomprehensible. 
If you admit that this Deity made man and the 
universe, but venture to inquire into the origin of 
his existence, you are directly told that he is an 
uncaused, self-existent, and eternal being, omni- 
present, omnipotent, immutable, and infinitely 
wise and benevolent. Now an intelligent inquirer 
having this theory before him, perceives its com- 
plete variance with facts and experience, and 
rejects it. He sees no reason for admitting more 
causes than were necessary to produce the effects 
observed, and not being able to see the impression 
of any other hand in Nature than matter and 
motion, rejects what he considers as superfluous. 
The believer says, mankind or the universe cannot 
have existed without a cause, but he says that the 
cause of mankind and the universe requires no 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 201 

cause. This uncaused first cause, he says is infi- 
nitely superior to the universe of matter, but 
acknowledges it to be quite incomprehensible. 
He also allows that the essence of matter is quite 
as incomprehensible as the nature of the Deity, 
but he decides without hesitation, that the one re- 
quires a cause, and the other no cause for its 
existence. 

The unbeliever, guided solely by experience 
and analogy, looks upon matter as eternally exist- 
ing, for he can find no evidence of its commence- 
ment. He invests it with no attributes which 
contradict acknowledged facts, and so long as he 
finds disorder, vice, and misery making up so 
large a portion of the ingredients in the world, he 
cannot infer infinite power, wisdom, and benevo- 
lence to be among its attributes. He cannot per- 
ceive any incongruity in ascribing to matter the 
powers and qualities of which he finds it possessed, 
nor can he see the necessity of deriving those 
powers and qualities from another being, who can 
neither be seen, heard, felt, nor understood; is cog- 
nizable by no one sense ; and by those who talk 
most loudly about him is declared to be totally 
incomprehensible even to themselves. Who, 
then, is it, ought to be charged with being shallow 
and unphilosophical? He who is guided by expe- 
rience and analogy ; or he who deserts those safe 
and certain paths, and roams into the regions of 
conjecture, and dogmatically demands the ere- 



202 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

dence of his fellow-men to the narrations of his 
own fancy? 

WHAT IS TRUTH? 

We are told in the New Testament, that, at the 
trial of Jesus, Pilate asked the question, " What is 
Truth? ^^ But, if we remember the record cor- 
rectly, he did not wait, or rather did not seek for 
an answer. And so it has been from that day to 
this, mankind ask the same question as did Pilate, 
and, like him, are too careless, indifferent, or too 
much in a hurry to discover the proper answer. 
They are in the habit of depending on others 
for their opinions, and hence the small amount, 
comparatively, of genuine free thought and men- 
tal independence. In all ages of the world, and 
even now to a considerable extent, certain teach- 
ers spring up with a "- Lo here and lo there, 
I am right, follow me," and the multitude take 
them at their word and "fall into line." We 
see this fact illustrated in the history of the Catho- 
lic Church and the swarming mja^iads of devotees 
that crowd her portals. The Protestant Church 
shows more disintegration or independence, but 
this is not owing to any intrinsic merit of her own, 
but wholly to the exercise of the right of private 
judgment, which is an Infidel rather than a Chris- 
tian principle. And if so, it goes to prove — 
what every observing man knows to be a demon- 
strated fact — that just in proportion as Christi- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 203 

anity becomes Infidelized, does it become sensible, 
liberal, practical, human, natural, and useful. And 
this also proves another important fact ; namely, 
that Christianity is not needed. 

What is wanted is, not any kind of religion that 
ever was or is now taught. The world has had 
enough of it, and altogether too much. Let it all 
go to speedy oblivion, bag and baggage, for it has 
been "weighed iu the balance (for thousands of 
years) and found wanting." But what do you 
propose to give as a substitute ? asks a religious 
inquirer. Teuth. And what is that? A con- 
formity to fact or reality ; or, as Frances Wright 
used to express the same idea, truth is knowledge, 
and knowledge "signifies things known," and fur- 
thermore, "• where there are no things to be known, 
there can be no knowledge." We accept this 
doctrine as thoroughly correct, and it comprises 
what we mean by Infidelity and Atheism. Ap- 
plied to science, it tells us that every science, that 
is, every branch of knowledge, is compounded of 
certain facts, of which our sensations furnish the 
evidence. Where no such evidence is supplied; 
we are without data ; we are without first prem- 
ises ; and when, without these, we attempt to 
build up a science, we do as those do who raise 
edifices without foundations. And what do such 
architects or builders construct? Castles in the 
air. 

Now if we have given a correct idea of the 



204 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

nature of truth, and the basis of all genuine or 
real science, let us look a moment at the course 
we should pursue in order to arrive at truth. We 
must be bold, independent, aud fearless at the 
start, be inquirers and investigators of the most 
radical or thorough description, examining fully 
and freelj^ every doctrine, and submitting it to 
the tribunal of reason for acceptance or rejection. 
There are people who say this is dangerous ground. 
They are blind guides, let them not be trusted. 
It is knowledge that we are in pursuit of, and 
that is not dangerous, or something of which we 
are to be afraid. What is the danger of truth? 
Or where is the danger of fact ? Error and igno- 
rance are, indeed, full of danger. They fill our 
imagination with terrors ; they place us at the 
mercy of every external circumstance ; they inca- 
pacitate us for our duties as members of the human 
family, for happiness as sentient beings, and for 
improvement as reasonable beings. This illusion, 
then, that in our inquiries we can go " too fast and 
too far " must be discarded. We must understand, 
therefore, what knowledge is, and when we have 
attained it we shall clearly perceive that it regards 
all equally ; that truth or fact is the same thing 
for all human kind; that there are not truths for 
the rich and truths for the poor ; truths for men 
and truths for women ; but that there are simply 
truths ; that is, facts, which all who open their 
eyes and their ears and their understandings can 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 205 

perceive. There is no mystery in these facts ; 
there is no witchcraft in knowledge. Science is 
not a trick, nor a puzzle ; the philosopher is not a 
conjurer, the observer of Nature who envelopes 
his discoveries in mysteries, either knows less than 
he pretends, or feels interested in withholding his 
knowledge ; and the teacher whose lessons are 
difficult of comprehension is either clumsy or he 
is ignorant. 

MAN. 

*' The proper study of mankind is man." 

We agree with the famous poet, that '' The proper 
study of mankind is man." He is the highest 
object as it regards his physical, intellectual, or 
religious character ; presents the greatest variety 
in operation, and holds forth the most boundless 
field of speculation as it regards the future. 

1. In his physical constitution he is above all 
other animals. Comparative anatomy, which is 
brought in only to illustrate the beauty and ele- 
gancy of his form, abundantly confirms our posi- 
tion. No skeleton can be compared to his. The 
sinews, skin, muscles, tissues, formation, habits, 
and movements of no class of beings now known 
can vie with him. Others are stronger, more swift, 
less affected by change of climate, season, food, 
drink, and surfeit ; but as a whole he stands pre- 
eminent. 

2. In his intellectual constitution, likewise, 



206 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

there is no comparison. He improves upon dis- 
appointment and defeat. He combines the wis- 
dom of ages. All the master-spirits of the world 
leave the concentrated light and energy of their 
discoveries spread upon his mind. Poets, histo- 
rians, sculptors, painters, patriots and philanthro- 
pists, though they have passed away, live in his 
memory and breathe with his expiration. Stand- 
ing on the earth, whirled at the rate of more than 
a million and a half miles a day in its course 
around the sun and all the universe in twenty- 
four hours coursing above it, he has been enabled 
in the exercise of mind to admeasure its course, 
weigh its materia, poise the sun, and to determine 
the nearest positive approach it can ever make to 
the nearest fixed star. He has, untaught but by 
himself, been enabled to demonstrate that the 
universe is infinite. Thus a finite being arrives at 
infinity ! But how? By intellect. Can any being 
or class of beings do more ? 

8. In his religious or superstitious character, he 
is wonderful. He has peopled the past, present 
and future. He has united time and eternity. 
He has thrown the creation of an eternal reality 
over the regions of fancy and imagination. Gods, 
devils, heaven, and hell, the thunders of omnipo- 
tence and the lightning of omniscience are at his 
command. Clouds, storm, and tempest ; light, 
beauty, and sublimity are his playthings. He 
dashes, mingles, separates, and convolves to suit 



OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 207 

his ends. His body streaks the earth or sweeps 
the ocean with a velocity too great to suffer his 
features to be recognized, but his mind, in its 
secret and impetuous course, outstrips the light- 
ning, and not infrequently in the frail body of 
some Shakespeare and Newton claims ubiquity 
with all intellects or with all worlds. If we come 
to the variety of his operations, there is no angle 
at which he cannot strike, no complex combina- 
tion of numbers which he cannot solve, no climate 
that he cannot breathe, no mechanism which he 
cannot construct. Birds, beast, fish, insects, all 
yield to him. He combines the varied operation 
of all. He rises infinitely above them. The ocean 
is his plaj^ground and the mountain his monument. 
He combines all combination and evolves all evo- 
lution. 

But what of his future destination ? The in- 
ventive genius of the nineteenth century is but 
the slumber and dream of ages. Who can tell 
what physical and intellectual energies he may 
not evolve ? If he can now cause light to paint 
the living image, who can deny that it is in the 
compass of his inventive power to concentrate 
mind itself and give it " a local habitation and a 
name.'' Thus on all these points in his physical 
constitution, his intellectual energies, his super- 
stitious devices, the variety of his operations and 
his future promise, he as an object of wonder 
rises above all others. " The proper study of 



208 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

mankind is man." It is so in another point of 
view, and that especially adverted to by the 
poet. To an individual, no other study is so 
important. No art, skill, or science will avail 
him if ignorant of mankind. He is circumven- 
ted by the artful and ruined by the unjust. He 
may be compared to a world destitute of repul- 
sive power and doomed to be lost in the magni- 
tude of some inferior orb without it. 



WHAT HUMANITY NEEDS. 

According to the religious teachers everywhere 
to be met with, this world would hardly be fit to 
live in were it not for Christianity. Now if this 
be really the case, we Infidels and Atheists are 
certainly engaged in a bad work, for we are oppos- 
ing the greatest blessing that humanity possesses 
and can have. But we are not yet prepared to 
accept this conclusion, and in the remarks which 
follow we will endeavor to give briefly a few of 
the reasons why, in our opinion, mankind can have 
a far better guide, counsellor, and director than 
religion, as generally understood, or that form of 
superstition known as Christianity. 

We start, then, with the idea, which seems to 
us self-evidently true, that, as a general rule, igno- 
rance is the great cause of human errors, conten- 
tions, strife, trouble, and misconduct, — and knowl- 
edge is the remedy. As a general principle, this 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 209 

is correct, we think. Mankind, not being bad by- 
nature, and every one without exception, perhaps, 
being in pursuit of happiness, how is it that so 
many of our race make such terrible mistakes, 
and bring upon themselves misery, degradation, 
wretchedness, hatred, and crime ? Are these afflic- 
tions desirable or from choice ? Does any man, 
woman or child sincerely want them and strive to 
secure them ? Most certainly not, if they are of 
sane mind. Then, why are these calamities so 
common on every hand? Because of ignorance, 
or because of not knowing how to live properly 
or happily in this ivorld. If anybody can think of 
any better reason, he will please to send it to us 
by telegraph, or post haste. It cannot come too 
quick, for if we are in error we wish to know 
" that better way." 

We believe, however, that we state the true 
cause and cure of human ills and woes, when we 
say that ignorance is the cause, and knowledge, 
the cure. Here we have the bane and the anti- 
dote ; the disease and the panacea. Knowledge, 
or a clear and certain perception of truth or fact 
as it exists in Nature and ourselves; an under- 
standing of natural and organic laws, and of our 
individual duties, together with those that we owe 
to one another and to society ; in a word, an edu- 
cation or a training that shall make mankind 
moral, just, kind, useful, practical, and secular in 
all things, is what is needed to start our race on 



210 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

the right track, to keep it there, and to produce 
the greatest amount of happiness, improvement, 
and utility of which human beings are susceptible. 
But religion, which is founded in ignorance and 
superstition, cannot from its very nature be 
adapted to benefit humanity, and if we may credit 
its history, it never did. Nor do we see why it 
should. Its very essence is bigotry and persecu- 
cution ; it opposes inquiry, science, progress ; 
makes duty and virtue consist in the belief and 
support of irrational or useless sectarian dogmas, 
and finally sets up the boast that its " kingdom is 
not of this world." For these and many other 
reasons that might be urged, the Christian religion 
is not adapted to human beings on earth, whatever 
it may do for them in ''Heaven," if there be one. 

SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 

If state and church were united in this country, 
the Government might consistently support these 
schools ; but as such is not the case, it cannot. 
Then again, all classes are taxed to sustain com- 
mon schools; — Infidels, Spiritualists, Free Reli- 
gionists, Jews, and the Nothingarians, as well as 
Protestants and Catholics. But tlie two latter 
classes arrogantly claim that they must manage in 
this matter, as though they were the only sup- 
porters of the schools, and had the exclusive right 
to dictate their management. Accordingly, the 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 211 

Protestants say that the Bible must be kept in 
the schools, and thej seem to expect that all the 
other parties named must acquiesce in this decis- 
ion, and keep on paying their taxes as usual for 
the maintenance of these institutions. The Cath- 
olics on the other hand say as arrogantly, that the 
Protestant Bible must be taken out of the schools, 
but they give the public to understand that theirs 
must be put in, to take its place, else the schools 
must be broken up. This is about the way that 
the dispute stands at present. It is a quarrel as 
to which Bible (St James's or the Douay version) 
is to have the preference in the schools, -and these 
belligerent Christians appear to entertain the idea 
that we outsiders will support either party that 
happens to gain the ascendency. It is ^'rule or 
ruin " with both of them, and consequently the 
preservation of the schools on an anti-sectarian 
basis rests wholly with Liberals. On any other 
basis, the schools must necessarily suffer in value, 
if not eventually become perverted from their orig- 
inal useful object. 

Now as our government is not religious, it is 
plain that the common schools, supported b}^ com- 
mon taxation, should be devoted to secular teach- 
ing and to nothing else. There can be no other 
just and equal plan, because if the Protestant and 
Catholic may introduce their Bibles into the 
schools to be read by the scholars, then the Infidel 
may bring in Voltaire's writings, and the Spirit- 



212 OCCASIOKAL THOUGHTS. 

ualist, those of Andrew Jackson Davis. All four 
classes pay taxes to maintain the schools, and 
therefore are equally entitled, by right and justice, 
to a voice in their management. But as secularism 
is the only subject on which people do not quarrel, 
let that be the basis of the public schools, and 
their foundation is on a rock. Build them on 
sectarianism, or the Bible, and they rest on sand. 

INDIVIDUALITY. 

When a man discovers what he believes to be 
an error in science, in art, in politics, in religion, 
or in anything else that in any way affects or in- 
fluences humanity, either individually or collec- 
tively, it is his manifest duty to correct it, if he can, 
and administer a preventive, if possible, that will 
act as a safeguard against its recurrence in the 
future. 

A man's intellect is his own individual king- 
dom, over which he reigns supreme. It is his intel- 
lect, and his intellect alone, that enables him to 
assert and maintain his individuality. So long as 
he relies on his own individual powers of ratioci- 
nation as his best and surest guide in all the dis- 
charge of the various duties of life, he stands forth 
among the people, a bright and shining example 
of individual existence and individual responsibil- 
ity. But the moment he abandons his self-reliance, 
and depends for his opinions and ideas, and almost 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 213 

his intellectual existence, upon the opinions and 
ideas of others, he loses his personal identity and 
becomes an intellectual parasite, stealing from 
others the wealth they have labored to procure, and 
which he is too lazy to work for. 

It is in this condition of abandoned self-reliance 
that we find the great mass of the people in respect 
to religion. They do not seem to take a sufficient 
amount of interest in religion, to give the matter 
a personal investigation. They are content to have 
their ministers do their religious thinking, and form 
their religious opinions for them, while they ar- 
range themselves comfortably among their cush- 
ions, and lazily bask in the sunshine of a delusive 
hope. This saves them a deal of trouble, and re- 
lieves them of a great responsibility ; for in the 
event of their being right, there is no respon- 
sibility. 

But should they be wrong, the responsibility 
rests with crushing weight upon their ministerial 
guide who has blinded their eyes, and succeeded 
in leading them, through the promises of a blissful 
hereafter, into the deceptive sloughs and bogs of 
a supernatural religion. 

SUNDAY. 

It is often said that Infidels wish to destroy 
Sunday, but this is not correct ; they would make 
it far more useful and profitable. This is all the 
change they propose, and it cannot truly be argued 



214 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

that this is any opposition to the day itself. They 
would remove from it the superstition and the 
bigotry which have so long been connected with 
it; they would use it to promote goodness, for 
humanity, for science, for letters, for society. 
They would not abuse it by impudent license on 
the one hand, nor by slavish superstition on the 
other. We can easily escape the evils which come 
of the old abuse; can make the Sunday ten times 
more valuable than it is now; can employ it for 
all the highest interests of mankind, and fear no 
reaction into libertinism. 

The Sunday is made for man, as are all other 
days, not man for Sunday. Let us use it, then, 
not consuming its hours in a Jewish observance ; 
not devote it to the lower necessities of life, but 
the higher; not squander it in idleness, sloth, 
frivolity, or sleep ; let us use it for the body's 
rest, and for the mind's improvement. The Sun- 
day has come down to us from our ancestors as a 
day to be devoted to the highest interests of man. 
It has done good service, no doubt, for them and 
for us. But it has come down accompanied with 
superstition, which robs it of half its value. It 
is easy for the present generation to make the day 
far more profitable to themselves than it ever 
was to their fathers ; easy to divest it of all big- 
otry, to free it from all oldness of the letter ; easy 
to leave it for posterity, an institution which shall 
bless them for many ages to come ; or it is easy to 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 215 

bind on their necks unnatural restraints ; to im- 
pose on their conscience and understanding absur- 
dities that at last they must repel with scorn and 
contempt, 

INFIDELITY. 

As much as Infidelity is scouted and opposed, it 
is a curious fact that every great revolution 
strengthens Infidelity and weakens the church. 
Every circumstance that sets men to thinking, 
creates Infidels ; and every attempt to improve 
the condition of any large class of the community, 
whether they are borne down by vice or by op- 
pression, is sure to meet with such opposition from 
the church, that reformers in fighting for these 
good works are obliged to fight the church 
into the bargain. The temperance reformers have 
been obliged to fight the church in carrying 
on their good work; other social reformers are 
obliged to do the same ; and so are the Demo- 
crats, at least all of the party who are true to 
the principles which they profess. All genuine 
philanthropists, all genuine reformers, therefore, 
are obliged to fight the church, while contend- 
ing for their good works ; and Infidelity gains new 
ground by being always on the side of reform. But 
whatever is prescriptive and intolerant the church 
defends. 

This is the state of things, and it shows that so 
intimately connected is religion with all established 



216 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

laws, customs, and institutions, that no innovation 
can be attempted for the removal of any social 
evil, without giving more offence to the church 
than to any other body of men. At the same 
time the church claims to be the great moral and 
social physician, whose spiritual panacea is the 
only remedy for the ills and woes of life. Yet it 
is notorious that when any practical reform is to 
be commenced, it has to be undertaken outside of 
the church and by men whom the church con- 
demns as Infidels, everybody being considered as 
an Infidel by the church, who steps out of her old 
and beaten track. 

In short, it is self-evident to every observer 
that the church and priesthood have always been 
the greatest obstacles in existence to all moral and 
intellectual progress ; and we may set it down as 
certain, that only in proportion as they are de- 
prived of power and influence, can the condition 
of mankind be ameliorated. We consider all Infi- 
dels, therefore, as pioneers in the important work 
of universal redemption, for they are engaged in 
the task of removing the chief obstacle to politi- 
cal and moral improvement. 

THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

They are much mistaken, who think that it is 
useless to attempt instructing ourselves at an 
advanced period of life. Such truths as we may 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 217 

have remained ignorant of during our earlier 
years, may still sometimes shed a benign influence 
over the closing scene of our existence. 

All we have to do, is to occupy our intellectual 
faculties in calculating justly our wants; to em- 
ploy our capabilities with greatest effect in ob- 
taining their gratification ; and, finally, we should 
always submit ourselves to the necessity of our 
nature and the inevitable conditions of our brief 
organization and consciousness. 

A person, in the maturity of reason, doubts ; 
in disease, his prejudices revive. Priests then 
exult, terming his former doubts pretence or au- 
dacity ; they pretend to consider dereliction of 
mind, by sickness or dotage, the time for sound 
and deliberate thinking. How common a case is 
this, and yet it is as unwise as to judge of the 
strength of a building when its timbers are falling 
to the ground. Reason tells us that when the 
mind is enfeebled, the prejudices of infancy may 
recur, and strength may give place to weakness 
and decay ; but a man in the maturity of his in- 
tellect and in good physical health, with his mind 
well established in the principles of truth, and 
aw^are of the realities of eternal Nature, will not 
be likely to turn fanatic under any circumstances. 

FREEDOM OF OPINION. 

No man should be blamed, injured, or molested 
on account of his opinions, whether right or 



218 occasio:n^al thoughts. 

wrong, on any subject. For we always suppose 
our own opinions to be right, or we should re- 
nounce them. And with respect to belief, every 
one must be the judge for himself. A person 
may be blamable for so conceited, so bigoted an 
attachment to his own opinions, as not to hear, 
and reasonably weigh, all the reasons, proofs, and 
arguments against them. Every one is justly 
blamable, and answerable to himself, for erroneous 
opinions conceived or retained for want of such 
impartial examination as his situation enables him 
to use, or from an obstinate conviction of their 
infallibility. And this is all the blame that can 
reasonably be attached to any one on account of 
his belief, because the opinions of men are above 
their control. 

Every one comes to a conclusion on any given 
subject, when a certain weight of evidence has 
been received, enough to produce conviction on 
his mind ; although perhaps to another individual 
whose mind is differently constituted, the same 
evidence is quite insufficient. So that one may 
believe, and another disbelieve the same thing, 
having the same evidence, and both be equally 
sincere and guiltless. Our opinions are not sub- 
ject to our will. We cannot believe and dis- 
believe as we please. The only effect, therefore, 
which laws, punishments, penalties, and disabili- 
ties can possibly have, is to render it prudent for 
individuals, if they entertain unpopular or unlaw- 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 219 

fill belief, to conceal it, and — in self-defence and 
against their own will — to cover themselves in 
the garb of hypocrisy. 

PEOTESTANTS — CATHOLICS. 

There is a difference between these sects as re- 
gards their attitude towards the all-important 
Right of Private Judgment. Not that the former 
admit it in its fulness or entirety, but they come 
nearer to it than the latter, at least theoretically, 
and hence we prefer the Protestants to Catholics. 
Then again, the very nature of Protestantism, (or 
protest against an infallible church,) tends to div- 
ision, disintegration, and individuality, which 
accounts for its almost numberless sects, showing 
that there is no real bond of union between them. 
Once tell men they have a right to think, even 
partially, and they will surely differ in opinion. 

We see this fact illustrated in the career of 
Protestantism. Its doctrines of two hundred 
years ago are greatly modified or nearly obsolete 
in its church to-daj% and this goes to prove that 
before another century is finished. Protestantism 
will then be among the things that were, or swal- 
lowed up in Liberalism, towards which it is drift- 
ing. So that the struggle for Free Thought, now, 
and in the future, will not be so much between 
Liberals and Protestants, as between Liberals and 
Catholics, and in this struggle, the Liberals are 



220 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

destined to win, unless the human mind retro- 
grades into the Dark Ages, and of that there is no 
probability. "Revolutions never go backwards." 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 

The influence of a good example is far reach- 
ing; for our experience and conflicts with the 
world lead us at times to indulge misanthropic 
sentiments, and charge all men with selfish and 
impure motives. The play of pride, prejudice, 
and passion, and the eagerness manifested by the 
great majority of men to advance their own inte- 
rests, often at the expense of others, and in viola- 
tion of the Golden Rule, cause us to look with 
suspicion on the best intents of others. Arro- 
gance, hypocrisy, treachery, and violence, every 
day outrage justice, till we are almost disposed to 
distrust human nature, and become discouraged. 

But amid all that is sad and disheartening in 
this busy, noisy world, now and then there is pre- 
sented to us a life of such uniform virtue, that we 
recognize in it a character that brings hope for 
the perfect development and ultimate regeneration 
of our race. Such characters are very precious, 
and such examples should be held up to the world 
for its admiration and imitation ; they should 
be snatched from oblivion and treasured in the 
hearts and thoughts of all who are in process of 
forming habits and character. 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 221 



EELIGION IlSr THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

An institution maintained by the taxes of the 
entire community — not only by Christians, but 
by Liberals, Spiritualists, and Free-thinkers as 
well — should not be partial, exclusive, or favor 
one portion of taxpayers more than another. 
This is equal rights ; it is " even-handed justice," 
and it should be exercised in regard to the public 
schools not less than in other institutions sustained 
by the people at large. But this democratic prin- 
ciple is not now recognized in the management of 
the public schools of Boston, and never was, so 
far as we can learn. 

They are, and always have been Christian — 
yet the Liberals, Spiritualists, Free-thinkers, and 
Nothingarians are compelled by law to pay taxes 
to support schools for teaching a religion in which 
these classes do not believe ! This is the plain, un- 
varnished truth, but we are told every hour that 
here in Massachusetts there is no mental coercion ; 
that we have no established religion and no union 
of Church and State ! This kind of talk is idle, 
and worse, for it is fraud and deception. The 
reading-books used in the public schools of this 
city, are, and always have been permeated by 
Christianity^ and hence are sectarian in their 
teaching. 



222 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 



FOEMATION OF OPINIONS. 

All men are born equal with regard to the for- 
mation of opinions ; by nature they are allowed the 
free exercise of their own judgments, equality in 
investigating, considering, and determining upon 
all subjects. Yet, notwithstanding this truth will 
be universally admitted (in the abstract), it seems 
to be generally disregarded in the application to 
religion. Hence it is common to hear the remark, 
by those who denounce innovations upon the pop- 
ular religious belief, that opinions ought to be 
governed by the general sentiment. 

But this course, besides directly tending to 
destroy all freedom of conscience, would perpetu- 
ate the superstition and ignorance which it is 
desirable to remove, and prevent the diffusion of 
the knowledge which all deem necessary and 
desire to see progressive. We should not adopt 
opinions merely because they are popular ; if the 
error is general, so much the greater should be 
the exertion to destroy it. If, by ignorance or by 
some blind fanaticism, the generality of mankind 
have been deceived into error must a man for the 
sake of popularity join in the concert of decep- 
tion, and the honest sentiments of his mind remain 
lost and inactive ? 

If the opinions of mankind are to remain fixed, 
when their only claims to belief are antiquity and 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 223 

universality, through fear of encountering opposi- 
tion or of being unpopular, what advance or im- 
provement could we expect in any knowledge of 
any kind? Oppose the liberty of thought, and 
you retard the progress of knowledge ; encourage 
investigation, and a new era arises ; knowledge of 
all kinds advances with rapid strides, and man 
becomes, as it were, a new creature. 



A CHURCH. 

The object of a church is to teach doctrines 
having reference to another world in another state 
of being ; and even if this plan does some good, 
it is of doubtful tendency, on the whole, for it 
begins, as it were, at the wrong end Admitting 
a future world in which mankind are to live after 
they have got through with this, what will give 
them the best preparation for that existence? 
Evidently to instruct them in the laws of their 
physical, moral, and mental nature, and in addi- 
tion, to place them as far as possible in those favor- 
able circumstances which promote health, happi- 
ness, and longevity. These things are unques- 
tionably of the first importance in this life, and 
indispensable, we should suppose, to our well- 
being in the next, if there is to be such an arrange- 
ment in reserve for us, on the same principle, it 
would seem, that in order to live properly to-mor- 
row, we must know how to live properly to-day. 



224 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

The whole question is involved in the manner 
of living, not in religious faith^ professions, nor 
building churches, but in supplying natural wants 
in a rational and practical mode, so as to remove 
inducements or temptations to vice and crime. 
Ignorance and poverty lead to misconduct and 
wretchedness, as every observing person is well 
aware ; and hence the remedy for them does not 
consist in lavishing millions on gorgeous taberna- 
cles, but in improving the bad social condition in 
which the poor and ignorant are placed. 

BLIKD FAITH. 

If blind faith had no other tendency than that 
of leading to the stability of virtue and its con- 
sequent happiness, it ought to be tolerated whether 
true or false. The grand object of life is to aug- 
ment the sum of human enjoyment on earth, and 
whatever tends to that end is decidedly good, and 
therefore demands the support of all well-mean- 
ing men. But unfortunately for faith, happiness 
has not been its fruit. Ireland is full of faith, and 
full of misery. Also in Spain, Portugal, Italy, 
and Mexico, faith and bigotry reign triumphant, 
whilst strife and wretchedness cover those lands. 

Wherever superstition has lighted her fire, and 
put on her seething-pot, the passions of men have 
boiled over like the lava from Mount Etna, scat- 
tering misery, death, and desolation, around. The 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 225 

very names of vice and virtue have been made in 
many instances to change places. Horrible crimes 
have been committed under the supposed sanction 
of a merciful God, while the most sacred duties 
have been neglected under the apprehension of his 
displeasure. 

The mind becomes confused, distorted, and, not 
unfrequently, totally subverted by the strong 
excitements induced by a blind superstitious faith ; 
yet, because excitement is necessary to man, form- 
ing as it does a portion of his very being, devo- 
tion in one form or another will perhaps always 
obtain. It may be stripped of blind faith and un- 
meaning ceremony, it may be rendered compara- 
tively rational and subservient to the growth of 
human happiness, but it cannot probably be exter- 
minated. Devotion is not so much faith as a feel- 
ing of the mind, a deep and intense passion per- 
vading the heart, and mingling with the being of 
him who has devoted his life to the attainment of 
a great and good object. 

IGNORANCE AND DEVOTION. 

The old proverb, " Ignorance is the mother of 
devotion," is conclusively proven by the well- 
known fact, that among an ignorant and supersti- 
tious people there is little or no free inquiry, 
doubt, and scepticism. These qualities indicate 
intelligence, knowledge, progress ; and hence it is 



226 occAsioisrAL thoughts. 

that we find them prevailing in countries which 
are the most intellectual, which have made the 
greatest improvement in the knowledge of them- 
selves and the world they inhabit. Among these 
nations, England, France, Germany, and America 
stand preeminent. Accordingly we witness that 
in these nations the doubts and disbelief of the 
prevailing system of religion have kept pace with 
the gradual extension of knowledge. The deep- 
rooted prejudices of a long succession of ages are 
daily giving way to the truths of reason and phil- 
osophy, and the rays of science are steadily dis- 
pelling the mists of superstition. 

In the Bible, the standard of their religion, the 
Christians have long seen something radically 
defective, or at least not as it should be ; but, 
never once doubting its divine origin, a thought 
concerning which they have been taught to believe 
a heinous sin, they have attributed its incompre- 
hensibilities to misinterpretation, and forthwith 
proceeded to adopt constructions of their own on 
indistinct and incoherent passages, as if an ema- 
nation from the Deity would not have been so 
plain that he who ran might not only read but 
comprehend ! Hence have arisen the variety of 
sects in the Christian religion, a variety that is 
unknown in any other religious system ; and a 
convincing proof to the unprejudiced, that if a 
perfect Deity found it necessary, after endowing 
man with the inherent power of distinguishing 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 227 

between good and evil, to furnish him with writ- 
ten instructions, the Bible does not contain them. 



CRIME. 

The causes and remedy for crime and the moral 
degradation of the race is an abstruse question, 
and some superficial remarks or erroneous hypoth- 
esis might lead to some correct views on the sub- 
ject. Without endorsing the doctrine of total 
depravity, or the other extreme, the perfection of 
the race, we have no doubt circumstances might 
or will be attained to modify the organization of 
man, so that he will exhibit a more rational char- 
acter. Combe, in his "Constitution of Man," in 
speaking of witchcraft, says, that Christianity has 
failed to protect mankind from practical errors ; 
revelation, with all its extra mundane agencies, is 
a failure. 

Hence a sound practical education is the only 
remedy that the human mind can conceive of to 
practically protect man from his practical errors ; 
hence his education should commence in forming 
correct habits in the room of stuffing his mind 
about phantoms in the dark ; his moral sentiments 
should take the place of his animal sentiments, so 
that he should have a higher conception of him- 
self than to live for the purpose of gratifying his 
pride and vanity by dress, ostentation, and parade. 

His intellect must be confined to realities, not 



228 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

the realm of fiction. In fact, it seems that with 
a correct education, many of the evils of society- 
would vanish. These views may be as inconsist- 
ent or Utopian as some others, but they were sug- 
gested by comments made upon the increase of 
crime. 

MOEALITY. 

No man needs a revelation to teach him mor- 
ality. It grows out of the very nature of man, 
and is taught him by all his experience and obser- 
vation from the earliest recollections until his 
knowledge and judgment are perfectly matured. 
The principle of it is nowhere to be met with in 
the Jewish code of laws. It is to be met with in 
the Christian code, as taught in the New Testa- 
ment, but there is a great deal also taught there 
which is inconsistent with it ; and therefore, as a 
whole, the morality of the New Testament is 
neither pure nor good. We find this principle 
more fully and more clearly developed in the 
moral maxims of Confucius ; but it is doubted 
whetlier this principle of doing as we ivould he 
done hy has ever yet been carried into effect, 
in practice, to any great extent amongst man- 
kind. 

The object of morality is, not only to produce 
the greatest happiness of the greatest number, 
but also the greatest happiness of the whole mass, 
embracing and including all the individuals who 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 229 

compose that mass. Not that all should be equally 
happy at all times, or even at any time, for this we 
believe to be absolutely impracticable, if not phys- 
ically impossible ; but only that all should be made 
as happy at all times as practicable to make them, 
without encroaching too much on the happiness 
of others ; so that the sacrifice shall in no instance 
be greater, if so great, as the happiness promoted 
thereby. To hit upon a plan that will best effect 
this, will probably require many experiments ; for 
we do not believe that the best experiment has 
ever yet been tried. 



THIS WOKLD. 

One world at a time is quite enough to attend 
to, nor does there seem to be any good reason for 
attending to another, since it must be self-evident 
that when mankind know how to live properly on 
the earth, they are prepared to live in heaven, if 
there be any such place in reserve for them. But 
without this indispensable preparation, it will not 
be a very desirable residence, even when they 
arrive there, and hence we may say, that whether 
in regard to this world or another, our Infidel doc- 
trine is the only proper one for either. 

It is true that men are seldom so absorbed in 
thoughts of heaven as to be without care or inter- 
est for the good things of earth, and that if the 
first day of the week belong to God, the other six 



230 OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 

are considered as belonging to Mammon. But 
this only proves that men are as inconsistent in 
following out their principles, as they are irra- 
tional in adopting them. If heaven be a reality, 
as we are told it is, it ought to absorb our thoughts, 
and to constitute the sole end and aim of our 
actions. 

We shall perhaps be told, that man would faint 
and sink under temporal afflictions, but for the 
consolations derived from heavenly or spiritual 
hopes. We admit that anticipations of a heaven 
of bliss excite and give pleasure for the moment. 
Perhaps the opium-eater, in his ecstatic reveries, 
was never more perfectly blessed than some en- 
thusiasts have been in their dreams of paradise. 
But opium, though it offers a seducing mode of 
escaping from present pain, is yet exceedingly per- 
nicious in its after effects. Depression succeeds 
to unnatural excitement, and moments of bliss are 
followed by days of misery. Visions of another 
world seem to us to act as a sort of moral opium, 
often no less injurious to the Christian than his 
favorite solace is to the Turk. 

But men must be wretched indeed, if to save 
themselves from despair, they must resort to arti- 
ficial stimuli, physical or moral ; and we believe 
that in every case the remedy is worse than the 
disease. Nay, more ; the remedy perpetuates the 
disease. If a man, to escape his cares, resorts to 
the bottle, his cares will soon increase and ruin 



OCCASIONAL THOUGHTS. 231 

him. And if, to quiet the anxieties of life, we 
have recourse to the excitements of religion, shall 
we not be similarly situated ? Let us hope for 
the time when knowledge shall dispel the worst 
miseries of life. 



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